The Hedgehog Brotherhood
by Starbolt Stories
Summary: Dr. Eggman hasn't been seen or heard from for 3 years. The Mobian's believe he's gone, but some believe otherwise. When evidence that the biggest threat to Mobius in its history is coming, Sonic receives a letter, that gives him a mission. Sonic must uncover this new threat, by travelling to another Mobius, with its own Dr. Eggman and none of his friends to help him... except one.
1. Prologue: The Resolve

_Mobius…_

_Home of the Master Emerald, and its seven servers: the Chaos Emeralds, which within each one has uncalculated power. Power enough to shape the planet or destroy it._

_For years now the evil scientist Dr. Eggman has been striving to claim this power for himself, to be able to control Mobius and construct the Eggman Empire over it. He has raised armies of robots and built some of the deadliest weapons Mobius has known in its time…_

_And one quashes all of them._

_Sonic the Hedgehog._

_He is the one whom all thank for selflessly fighting Eggman and preventing his schemes from succeeding. It is he whom all thank for preventing the Chaos Emeralds being used for evil. If it weren't for Sonic the Hedgehog Mobius would have been under the grip of Dr. Eggman decades ago._

_It's been three years now since Eggman has been seen or heard of, and the population of Mobius is finally starting to relax from the terror that Eggman threw upon the planet. Even Sonic's beginning to relax and he's even starting to believe that Eggman won't come back._

_I'm still not convinced though. After his last battle three years ago he gave up too easily and just retreated, without threatening to return and conquer Mobius the way that he normally does. There is definitely something that he is up to. Something that evidently is taking years to complete and that he wants nobody knowing about. Could he know something that Sonic and the others don't know?_

_Hmmm…_

_Should I tell Sonic what I discovered about the Emeralds, and about that other universe? What that Eggman may doing on the other side might be able to provide him with the answer to what our Eggman's up to. But how would he be able to do it on his own? On that side he won't have his friends to help him with stopping Eggman and his power is limited without the emeralds. _

_Hmmm…_

_Why should I be worrying about him? He's stopped Eggman countless times in the past and he's never needed anyone to help him. He'll need me though on the other side. He won't be able to do this alone. But first I need to find a way to get him there. The emeralds only have enough power to transport a single person across only once in an eternity. And I intend to take that route. Without the emeralds his body can't make it there… but what if his mind could? What if he could somehow send his consciousness over to the other world? What if somehow it is possible for that consciousness to create an entirely new Sonic? A replica of himself that his mind can inhabit whilst in that world, instead of his real body. I'm sure that fox friend of his - tails can create the machine required to do it, if he only knew how to. _

_Only I know what is required to travel across there and I don't know how Sonic's mind will be affected on that side either. I suppose it's a risk that Sonic will have to choose for himself. For the sake of Mobius I hope he decides to take it. _

_Very well._

_It's up to me to inform Tails of the situation so that he can get Sonic to that side. What happens after that will be up to him, and it's up to me to ensure that he finds the answers._

_Sonic…_

_See you on the other side my friend._

And with his resolve hardened he sped off to inform Tails of how to fulfill his task.


	2. Chapter 1: The Message

**Hello viewers. Welcome to my first fanfic: The Hedgehog Brotherhood. This fic is inspired by a game that my three friends: Lewis, Jonathan, James and me thought up in Year 6 that we called T.H.B - The Hedgehog Brothers, and the three of us together acted it out during our school years. We created books about our story and the characters within it. We also interpreted it as a series much like Sonic X and created a book about the episodes that we designed (which I am using to help me write this). **

**We would have kept playing the game but our group split apart and the friendship was broken when we went to High School, and T.H.B was all but forgotten. I however held onto the memories, thinking that the other three had forgotten and I kept hold of the books hoping that one day I could bring it back. **

**It wasn't until Year 10 when my friendship with Lewis was brought back to life that I discovered that he too had held onto the memories of T.H.B and I realized that my hopes were still alive. Then I discovered this site and gradually the idea came to me. I could tell the story of my childhood in the form of a fanfic and bring T.H.B back to life. **

**This fanfic isn't going to be the same as the original game that we played because that is something that the four of us treasure deep in our hearts and don't want to give away. However this story will still be very similar but will be more logical and more organized than our original Year six game for obvious reasons.**

**But those of you who do wish to hear the end of it will need to buckle up for the long run because by the time this story reaches its end you will probably be at least three years older. But it will be worth it.**

**I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters, but the credit for the story itself and the characters (that don't belong to SEGA) belongs to the four of us who designed it.**

**Jonathan Roberts, James Richardson, Lewis Nulty and Sam Thompson present:**

**The Hedgehog Brotherhood**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1 - The Message<strong>

The day dawned on Mobius. The sun rising up from beyond the sea. It's light turning the dark blue sky to a pale violet colour, and then to clear blue. Outlining every cloud in the sky. Reflecting in every bead of dew on the leaves and grass, and in the ocean itself making Mobius shimmer with the morning light.

With the dawn creatures began to stir. Birds from their nests in the forests opened their eyes to the morning rays, and stretched their wings ready for the day. From the fields rabbits and mice arose and poked their heads out from their dark dwellings. Their eyes adjusting to the light before they emerged and set out to forage for food, dew catching on their fur.

And on a hilltop, beneath the shadow of a great oak tree overlooking the sea a creature stirred from his nap. A great yawn breaking the silence of the early morning. He stood up and wandered out from beneath the shadow of the tree and the sun hit him; outlining his streamlined body, his red and white sneakers damp from the morning dew, his blue quills coming out smoothly from behind his head, and his green eyes reflecting the sun's light.

"How I wish all mornings could be like this."Sonic the hedgehog said to himself. "I'm really starting to appreciate them, especially since Eggman's gone and probably isn't coming back."

He brushed off the grass that was sticking to his back, stretching his legs preparing for a morning run. _Boy, have these last three years been quiet. _He thought. _Even I've been able to settle down which isn't something I do easily. There hasn't once been any need to save the world from anything. There haven't even been any low level crimes committed. This is the most peaceful I've ever known Mobius since Eggman began his villainy._

Sonic started jogging on the spot, warming up and getting the blood flowing through his thin legs. "Well at least that means that there isn't anything I should be worrying about. Alright! Since it's so peaceful I might as well just relax and take it easy today. I might pay Tails a visit later on." And with that he sped down the hill and off towards the new day.

* * *

><p>Tails was up early this morning, and was already hard at work in the X Tornado hangar making some repairs and adjustments. In all truth they weren't really needed. Tails had done everything that he could possibly do to the plane as far as modification was concerned, and the machine hadn't needed repairs doing to it since the last battle with Eggman three years ago. The plane was now capable of flying through a lightning storm and coming out without a scratch, but it had never been needed for anything since the battle and was now just sitting in the hangar day after day.<p>

In all truth Tails was just bored, and when he was bored he enjoyed tinkering with machinery. With so little to do over the past few months the subject of his research was now looking at the Chaos Emeralds and studying how their power could be used. But now even that project was almost complete and Tails wasn't sure of what else he may be able to test or build.

He looked over at his beloved Tornado forlornly. _Poor Girl._ He thought._ She hasn't been required for years now and I haven't ever had a reason to use her. And all of these capabilities that she now has have never been needed. Was there any point in upgrading her if the upgrades weren't going to be used? _

Tails sat down, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. "If only Sonic would call round. I could bring the Tornado out and the two of us could go cruising again. Like the old times."

Tails was jerked out of his train of thoughts by the sound of a knock at his front door. "Could that be Sonic? No. He never knocks. Who could that be then?" he wondered aloud as he opened the door, only to find nobody there. "That's weird. I could have sworn that someone knocked on the… huh?" he stopped mid-sentence as he noticed an envelope on his doormat. "Who could this be from?" he asked as he picked up the envelope, taking it into his workshop. 'To Miles 'Tails' Prower the Fox and Sonic the Hedgehog' was what was written on the front. This instantly made Tails worried. Nobody called him by his real name unless they were deadly serious about something.

_This must be really important, but who's it from?_ he thought to himself as he opened the envelope. Two sheets of paper fell onto the desk - One looked like a blueprint for a machine of some sort, but it was the other piece of paper that caught his attention - it was a message, and as he read it a fear deep inside his mind rose to its surface. When he finished reading he put the paper down next to the plan. His face was pale, his eyes were wide and his breathing was heavy.

"I have to tell Sonic." Was all he could say.

* * *

><p>Later that day Sonic arrived at Tails' workshop. "Hey Tails. How's it goin buddy?" He called, letting himself in. "Huh? Tails? Somethin wrong?" He asked as he saw his friend, still pale-faced turn from where he was studying the plan. In his hand was the message. "Sonic. You need to read this urgently." He said.<p>

Sonic was taken aback the amount of seriousness in his young friend's voice, but he took the message that Tails was holding out to him. "Who is this from?"

"Just read it. It doesn't matter."

"Well. Alright then." Sonic said, with a slight worry of his own in his voice as he held up the letter and began to read.

* * *

><p><em>Sonic the Hedgehog<em>

_It's imperative that you read this. The future of Mobius could depend on it. _

_As you know, it has been three years now since there has been any word of Dr. Eggman. Mobius has relaxed and recovered from his evil and everybody, even you believe that he is gone for good._

_Well listen. Have you ever wondered if there was a reason why he disappeared after your last battle with him, and why he gave up o' so easily that time? Ever wondered if that reason was because he was planning something else? Something even bigger that has taken years to complete (three to be precise), that he wants nobody knowing about until it is too late? Ever wondered that?_

_So have I. _

_Now I don't know what it is that Eggman may or may not be up to and neither does anybody else. That is what makes it such a threat. Unknown enemies are always the hardest to defeat and the fact that everyone thinks that he's gone is perhaps exactly what he was after, and you gave it to him. _

_This is the reason why I sent you this message. I had to warn you. If my speculations turn out to be true in the long run then Mobius will be powerless against him unless you figure out what he is up to._

_This is the other reason why I sent you this. I believe I know how you can find out what Eggman is up to. Now listen well_

_I have been studying the chaos emeralds and their connections with the balance of this world for a long time now and I recently discovered something about their powers and also about our own world. _

_There is another world. A parallel world._

_A second Mobius on the reverse side of the chaos dimension, with its own set of chaos emeralds and its own Dr. Eggman. He is one of very few who were born on both sides, on both planets. _

_Are you beginning to see the importance of this discovery? _

_You will fully realize when you hear the next part. The other Mobius has our timeline of events but in a different order and different fashion of taking place. And what's more. _

_What happens in __**either**__ world is __**reflected**__ in the other. _

_Do you understand its significance now?_

_This means that whatever the other Eggman is planning will inevitably be what your world's Eggman is planning or will plan. This is why it is of the utmost importance that you somehow find out what that Eggman is up to, otherwise your Eggman's plans will remain in the dark and should he attack you will be unable to stop him._

_Here is the difficult part however. And here we come to my final discovery. It __**is**__ possible to reach the other world but to do so the seven chaos emeralds are required, and the user himself must have immense chaos power of his own. Even then it only possible to do a one way journey for a single person, only once every eternity. _

_As such you would be unable to get back if you took that route, even if you did have the power required to get you there in the first place. Without that way of getting there it is impossible to get your body across the rift to the other side. Getting your consciousness over there however is a completely different story. _

_That is why within this letter I have put a blueprint detailing a machine with the power required to send your mind to the other Mobius. When complete not only will this machine send the consciousness of the person who is wired into it over to the parallel world but your body will be scanned through the machine and with that information an exact replica of your body can be created in that world, sneakers and all, for your consciousness to inhabit._

_A warning about this machine though. It does not say how to send your consciousness back to your real body. All I know is that once you send your consciousness over, only you can send it back again. And also I have no idea how the journey over to that world will affect your personality or memory. In the worst case you could end up losing both or having them both changed. Or should you be able to send back your consciousness the changes to them could be permanent and not only for the you on the other side. _

_However these risks are risks that you will have to decide whether to take or not. But I hope for the sake of your Mobius and the other Mobius that you do decide to take these risks. Creating the machine will not be a problem. I can imagine your friend Tails has already figured out how to create it. What happens now is up to you. But just so you know. _

_I found that blueprint inside Eggman's abandoned base. Which is why I am certain now that he is not as gone as we all think._

_Think about it Sonic the Hedgehog_

_Mobius' future depends upon it._

* * *

><p>Sonic slowly put the letter down. The blood had drained from his face, and his eyes were wide. That letter had rose to the surface a fear that he had only just started to forget. What's more was that in strange and worrying ways, the letter made perfect sense. "Tails?" he asked finally. "You make a similar discovery whilst you were studying those emeralds?"<p>

"Well. No. But…. My statistics were pointing towards that conclusion. But I hadn't finished the research so it was too early to make assumptions."

"So ya think that whoever sent this is correct about that parallel world, and about Eggman?"

"I'd like to say no. But that letter made too much sense to sound false."

Sonic took several deep breaths and sat down next to Tails. "If that's the case then we can't take any chances. How far have ya gotten through that plan?"

"I was almost finished when you arrived. The machine should take me about four days to build, but if you help me out we can turn that into two and a half days."

"Alright let's get to work then. If whoever sent this is correct then this is our only lead to uncovering Eggman's plot."

With a new found fear sharp in both their mind's the two sat down together to decipher the plan and get to work on the machine.

* * *

><p>Two days later the machine was complete. It looked in all sense like a stasis pod big enough to fit a single person in. There were many wires connected to where the head would go and straps to keep the body in place. And it was this that Sonic would be put inside to send his consciousness to the parallel world.<p>

Over these last two days Sonic had been thinking about the warning that the letter had detailed. He wasn't sure what would happen to him if he chose to do this. But in the end he realized that if he didn't do this then there would be no way of finding out and Eggman would be free to continue his plan. And besides Mobius was more important in the long run than his own mind was. Now he and Tails were looking at the machine and wondering about the circumstances of what would happen.

"I'm not so sure about this." Tails said worriedly. "Remember what it said in the letter? There's no telling what may happen to your mind or your memory if you go in there. You may even forget to wake up."

"I know that buddy. But if I don't do it then we'll never know what Eggman's up to. And in the long run the planet's more important than I am." This didn't quell Tails' worry, but he understood well enough to know that once his best friend decided to do something nothing would stop him. He simply nodded and opened up the pod, allowing Sonic to climb into it. As he watched his friend strap himself down and get ready to go into stasis he hoped that Sonic would be able to find what he was looking for. He hoped his mind wouldn't be changed by the experience, and above all he hoped that Sonic would wake up again.

"Hey Tails." Sonic could be heard from inside the pod. "I'll be back before you know it. Just watch." And he gave his friend one of his trademark half grins accompanied with a wink. Tails felt a little better as he commenced the stasis and started the machine up. He watched Sonic's eyes close and his cheerful expression turn to one of peaceful sleep.

"Good Luck Sonic" He said quietly, as he machine began to send his consciousness across the void and into the other world, where a different Eggman would be waiting for him. And unbeknownst to Tails so would somebody else.

**And so the the story begins. I will try to add at least one chapter every one or two weeks. It all depends on my own mood, whether or not I develop writer's block, and how long I want the chapter to be. Lewis will be helping me with redesigning and choreographing what goes on in each chapter and then I shall put it into words for you to read. I will also be starting to add my own artworks for The Hedgehog Brotherhood on my DeviantART account: starboltarts so keep up to date with those as well. **

**I appreciate your reviews and viewers be patient just until I put up the next Chapter - Chapter 2: The Arrival**


	3. Chapter 2: The Arrival (Rewritten)

**Hi there. I understand it's been a while. The reason I've reposted this chapter is that I discovered that either my writing style evolved, or I just wasn't happy with this chapter. As such I've rewritten the chapter in what I think is a better format. Enjoy.**

**Chapter 2 - The Arrival**

It was evening on Mobius, and the sun was low on the horizon, reflecting in shades of red and orange on the cloudy sky, and casting bright yellow rays onto the tall buildings of the wide cityscape. The metal and glass of the skyscrapers shone and the city seemed to be glowing in the last of the sunlight as the clouds turned from their bright yellow colour to a duller one, and then gradually to the dark blue of the oncoming night.

On top of one of the tallest skyscrapers of that city on Mobius, where the rays were still beaming onto, a dark shape was visible between the rays, out of place in the intense yellow light of the sunset. Gradually as the sun's beams retreated with the setting sun the shape became more visible; metallic cuffs on his hands reflecting what little light was left, a white tuft of fur on his chest, a stark contrast to his almost entirely black body and the streaks of red on his fur and quills, and finally a set of deep crimson, almost demonic looking eyes.

Shadow the Hedgehog certainly looked like a creature of evil intent and dark desire, however that was quite the opposite of what his actual personality was. If you were one of about three people who knew Shadow well, then you would know that he was a person who was driven by his beliefs and morals, that he would stop at nothing to finish something that he started (no matter what the cost), that he preferred to keep to himself and always seemed troubled by something, that he would choose to work solo every time if he was given a choice, and that if he was your friend then he would stand by you to the end, if you were to fall in battle he would avenge you a thousand times over, and if you were his enemy then you had better watch your back because he was unforgiving and merciless.

This was what Shadow's personality was like on his own world, on the other Mobius. Now though he was in a different world, a world that was exactly the same as his own world but at the same time exactly the opposite of it. He knew that his memory hadn't been damaged by the dimensional jump however his mind somehow felt different, but he couldn't figure out how it was different.

This was what he was pondering over as he leaned back against the roof of the skyscraper, his arms and legs crossed over, and a frown on his face, watching the sunset fade into night. Oh. And also what on Mobius he was to do with his comatose companion that he had set down on the edge the skyscraper.

_Sleeping like a baby. _He thought to himself._ I've always known Sonic to be lazy but he's never taken this long to wake up. How long has it been now since I found his body washed up on the seashore? Must be at least 2 days now. I'm starting to wonder if he ever will wake up._

_Hmm….._

_Well it seems that that machine certainly managed to replicate his body in this world. Back when I first found him his body was just finishing materializing into solid form. It seems that his consciousness is still trying to reach his body though. I don't know when he'll wake._

Shadow closed his eyes so as to think more easily, and his frown intensified.

_What worries me though is how the dimensional jump affected his personality. I know something feels different with me but I can't identify it. I don't know what will happen to his mind. It may not be the same as the mind of the Sonic that I always knew. His personality may be one of evil. He may not remember who he is, where he is or why he's here. He may not remember who I am._

_Hmm….._

_Well, memory or no memory he has a task to fulfill in this world that he chose to undertake. And I intend to help him, for the sake of our own world._

"Uhhhhh."

Shadow was jolted out of his contemplation by a sound that he knew all too well. He smiled to himself and opened his eyes. He turned towards his fellow hedgehog, whom had just let out a loud groan, as he began to stir.

_Hmph. Seems somebody's finally showing some signs of life. He certainly took long enough. _Shadow thought as he stood up and walked towards his friend

Sonic's eyes flicked open, groaning as fatigue and hunger caught up with his body. He stared around at his surroundings. He was on the roof of a skyscraper, staring out at a vast cityscape, darkening as the sun vanished and the city was lit up by street lights far below. Though he couldn't understand why, this scene with the city and its lights made him feel nostalgic, as if he'd been here before. But he couldn't remember ever being here before. Come to think of it he couldn't really remember anything, though he didn't really know why he should.

_Just who am I? _He thought to himself. _And why am I here… ARGH! _Sonic clutched his forehead as he heard a voice suddenly resonating in his mind.

"C'mon hero. Have you forgotten everything? Fine. Guess I'll have to start from the top. _Sonic - that's your name. Sonic the Hedgehog, and you love running more than anything else in the world. In fact you're the fastest thing living on this planet" Running? _

_Wait…..hero?... Sonic the Hedgehog. _Sonic tried to push himself up from where he was, but fell back down almost at once. His whole body was weak.

"Well you certainly took your time."

"Whaaah!"

Sonic jerked his head around in the direction the voice had come from and found himself looking at a pair of red and black legs, whose feet where covered by black and white shoes with red metal soles. As his eyes scanned upwards he found himself looking at a black hedgehog with streaks of red showing between the black, and a pair of crimson eyes, though he wasn't looking at him.

_"Shadow…" _

_Huh? _

_"Sonic can't you hear me? His name is Shadow, he's grumpy and taciturn but he really becomes reliable when danger's around. And I'm not sure but I think he's your friend." _

_Wait. Who is that?_

"Uhhh? Shadow…? Are you Shadow?" Sonic asked.

"Hmph, yes." Shadow said.

"Wait so. You're a friend?

"I'm an ally. I'm the only trustworthy person you'll meet in this place. Now Come on. Let me help you up. You're still weak from your sleep, and eat this. You'll recover quicker." He said pulling out a bar of chocolate and handing it to him.

"Uhhh? Thanks." Sonic said and took the chocolate bar from him, eating it quickly and feeling temporary strength return to him.

"Man. I sure needed that." He sighed wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and sitting down again on the rooftop.

"You're welcome." Shadow said curtly. "Now tell me how much you can remember about yourself."

"Huh? Why?"

"You've been asleep a long time. I want to check if your memory is still good."

Sonic wasn't quite sure what to make of this question, but he still gradually began to answer.

_Let's see. My name is Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, and…. yes! More than anything else I love to run. Was there more?_

"Well, I think that's everything." Sonic concluded, leaning forwards and putting his hands on his knees. "I don't think there's anything else, is there?"

Shadow didn't say anything. Sonic opened his eyes again and saw him with his back turned and his arms folded.

"Huh? Hey um..Shadow! Something wrong?" He asked but Shadow didn't seem to hear him.

* * *

><p>It was now night and Shadow and Sonic were on the move. It had been three hours now since Sonic had awoken and he had since regained his old personality that Shadow knew him for, though he still had no memory. He had also regained his energy and rediscovered his running prowess, which he was now reveling in. Now he was exploring the world he was in. Shadow was secretly thankful that at least Sonic hadn't lost his physical capabilities like he had his memory.<p>

_He certainly seems like the same Sonic that I remember, _he thought as he sped along. _Albeit he hasn't any memory but he still acts and thinks like the real Sonic. He doesn't seem bothered by it either. Maybe he himself doesn't realize he's lost his memory. That's almost makes him like a newborn but with a set personality already in place. He still has his laid back outlook on life and his affinity for speed. It is slightly annoying that his attitude is still there. Now __**there's**__ something that I didn't want him to keep._

_Hmph… At least he seems to trust me. I sincerely hope he isn't too much like a newborn. He'd better not start thinking I'm his mother._

Shadow looked over at Sonic as the world rushed past them. He then reached behind his back and took out an object. Shadow knew what the object was. He'd found it soon after arriving. It was shaped liked a 'brilliant cut' diamond, even though it wasn't a diamond, and it emitted a violet glow. It was about the width of Shadow's palm and felt warm to his touch. But what made it instantly recognizable was the immense power that Shadow could feel radiating from it.

This was a Chaos Emerald that Shadow was holding. He knew the potential of them and many of their secrets. They were what he had used to travel to this world in the first place. He knew that in his world there were seven in existence. He also knew that this world had its own set of emeralds, although he couldn't be sure of how many.

Shadow put the emerald away and then turned his head back to Sonic.

_I think it's about time I told him of the situation. No use putting it off just because he still doesn't completely remember. The sooner we start the fight the sooner we find the answer._

"All right Sonic! Time to stop!" Shadow called to him.

"What? You gotta be kidding me. I'm only just getting warmed up." Sonic complained, but he stopped all the same and Shadow with him. They were in a forest clearing with an open skyline. The moon was so bright that everything around them was visible to them.

"Sonic, I think you've acquainted yourself well enough with this world. Now. I want to see if you're still capable" Shadow said standing with arms by his side.

"Huh? Capable of what?" Sonic asked.

He got an answer straight away. It came in the form of a jagged beam of energy launched straight at him. His muscles reacted accordingly out of impulse and Sonic dodged the chaos spear. He didn't have time to ask why Shadow had attacked him because he had to counter an oncoming spinning strike, to which he reacted by generating his own spinning strike to combat Shadow's.

The two hedgehogs collided and bounced away, rebounding off of the trees, which snapped upon jumping from, and colliding again. This time they held, and remained in the air, trying to best each other. At that moment Shadow used chaos control and reappeared behind Sonic's spin, generating a chaos spear to follow in Sonic's wake as the power exertion caused him to fly forwards now that there was no resistance. Realizing this Sonic stopped his spin and instead focused the power downwards, performing a ground slam to avoid the oncoming chaos spear, then channeling it backwards to dash back towards Shadow at Mach speed.

Shadow landed and used chaos control again to dodge, and began launching chaos spears, sonic dodging them due to the heightened agility naturally gained from having extreme speed. Between the movements he was surprised at how fluid they seemed and how naturally they came to him. They didn't seem to even require thinking about. He then turned on his heel, building immense power in the turning leg, and then unleashed it in a massive burst of speed straight at Shadow.

At that moment Shadow raised one of his hands, palm facing forwards and up. He was telling Sonic to stop. Sonic struggled to slow himself down, breaking about a meter from him. He waited.

"That's alright then."

"What?"

"You **do **know how to fight and defend yourself. I wanted to see if you remembered how to after being asleep for so long."

"To be honest I wasn't really thinking. It just sorta happened. My body was reacting by itself. I don't remember doing any of this before, but it felt too natural to be dumb luck."

"That's good. You'll need that battle skill."

"What for?"

"For what you and I are here to do."

Shadow walked over to one of the tree stumps created by the fight and brought out the chaos emerald once again. The area took on a purple glow, and became visible in the emerald's light.

"You see Sonic. This world, Mobius, is a world governed by the power of chaos. This chaos power is an unlimited source of energy and is created from the thoughts of the living creatures of this planet. There is a man though that has been trying to harness that chaos energy for himself. Does the name Dr. Eggman mean anything to you Sonic?"

"Umm… No…"

"_You're saying I need to explain this too?"_

_Huh?_

"_I can't believe this. Fine, just keep your ears open. I'll let Shadow explain for once."_

_Uh. Alright._

"Sorry, up short on that one. Who is he?"

Shadow paused to reconsider what he had been about to say.

_He doesn't even remember Eggman. This amnesia thing really isn't being helpful. I was hoping not to have to explain this. Hmm… Perhaps I shouldn't tell Sonic about his backstory with Eggman. After all, technically he and this world's Eggman don't have a backstory._

"You've really missed out on a lot. Dr. Eggman is a scientist with a huge IQ and an even huger ego. His ultimate ambition is overthrowing the inhabitants and constructing what he calls 'The Eggman Empire' or 'Eggmanland', where he rules Mobius as its sovereign. The difference between him and other totalitarians is that he has the resources and power to accomplish it. His genius has enabled him to construct machinery and weaponry that is more powerful than military weapons of the highest capability. Over the years he's become one of the greatest threats to the planet's peace and order."

"How come then he hasn't yet managed to do it then?"

"I don't know. He must've been stopped each time somehow."

"You said Eggman wanted to harness the power of chaos for himself. What exactly did you mean?"

"As I said before, chaos is an unlimited energy source; however the only way it can be obtained and used is through these." At this he gestured to the glowing emerald.

_If he doesn't remember Eggman, he won't remember the emeralds. I'm pretty certain of that._

"Mystical gems known as chaos emeralds. These gems are born of the planet itself and were created along with it. They also act as a medium that converts chaos into the energy. The doctor is always after them to be able to use the planet's own chaos energy against the planet and the inhabitants that created it."

"Is that what you meant by 'what we're here to do?' Find the chaos emeralds and protect them from this Dr. Eggman? That is a chaos emerald isn't it?" He said, pointing to the purple emerald.

"Possibly and yes, this is an emerald. You see Eggman's been inactive for a while now and it seems that he's been working on something. Nobody knows what it is but the fact that nothing has happened yet means that it is still in preparation." This was only partly true. Shadow was only saying what he knew was correct about Eggman in their own world. He hadn't seen or been seen by any of this world's inhabitants and he himself was clueless as to what this world's Eggman was doing. "So we're going to infiltrate his fortress and identify his scheme, whether there are chaos emeralds involved or not. Since we can both fight we need to be the ones to find out so that we might be able to stop it."

Shadow finished explaining and Sonic sat there pondering, then he smiled getting to his feet and stretching his legs.

"Sure. You can count on me buddy. Just tell where to go and I'll be there in no time at all," Sonic said. "… we are running aren't we?"

"Not this time, and don't call me buddy. CHAOS CONTROL!"

* * *

><p>The two hedgehogs materialized on a hill overlooking Eggman's base. It was certainly something to see. A tall structure with many buildings placed around, most likely for robots. And within its premises were thousands upon thousands of sentry robots, guarding the main building.<p>

"Now I see what you mean about him having weaponry. This place is teeming with gun barrels all ready to load, aim and fire."

"I told you, and we have to get past all of those gun barrels without appearing on their scopes."

"Heh. That shouldn't be too hard. I take it you know where to get in?"

"I think so. Keep close, up and quiet."

"Huh?"

"Just follow and don't make any noise."

"Alright."

The two of them dashed between shadows, from warehouse to warehouse, avoiding the view of the robots and cameras that were littered all over the base, until finally they reached the back of the main building. Shadow found what he was looking for. He knew that vents were always blind spots for security cameras as he and Sonic jumped in and began the infiltration.

"Hey Shadow. Do you know where this leads?" Sonic asked as they crawled along.

"Not sure, but knowing Eggman he'll probably have research and testing facilities all over this building. At least one of them should have what we are looking for."

"I get that, but what exactly **are** we looking for?"

"Don't ask so many questions. We'll probably know when we find it"

"Alright then. I just hope this vent isn't too long."

Sonic fell silent for the rest of the time as they continued along the vent shaft; until finally they reached an area that they could jump down from. Shadow pulled off the cover and the two hedgehogs dropped down into a dark room, lit only by floor lights. As Shadow and Sonic looked around their eyes began to accustom to the darkness, and they could see what else was in the room. Ahead of them, at the end of a path lit by floor lights were three big capsules, large enough for either of the two of them to fit into.

"I recognize these capsules." Shadow said as a memory of waking from one returned to him. "Eggman uses them as stasis pods to hold biological experiments."

"Wait. Biological as in flesh and blood?"

"About right. Unless these capsules are exceptions…" Shadow said, approaching the central pod, "… then they contain…"

"… Hedgehogs!?" Sonic finished.

Inside the capsules, in stasis sleep, were three hedgehogs, who looked almost identical to Sonic and Shadow. The size of the windows on the pods gave a view of their heads and upper bodies.

The left capsule: WA-5E held a hedgehog who had almost an identical body shape to Shadow's own, shoes, gloves, tuft and all. The only differences were that, instead of having Shadow's black body, this hedgehog was a light blue colour, lighter than Sonic's own blue and instead of the streaks of red he had sea green ones. His brow shape wasn't as stern looking as Shadow's and seemed more curved, and he lacked the eye streaks that Shadow had. His head quills were also shorter and his forehead streak also had what looked like fin shapes along its outsides. The tuft on his chest was a pale blue and had darker blue highlights at its tip.

In capsule 1N-FE-RN0, the right capsule was what seemed to be an exact replica of Sonic; the difference being that his body was a fiery orange colour, entering into a dark red colour at the tips of his spikes. He also seemed to be more heavily built than the two of them. Like Shadow, this hedgehog also had red streaks on his arms and eyes, but on his arms the red formed patterns of what seemed like swirling flames. Finally his chest colour was going from Sonic's yellow gradually going through to the orange of the hedgehog's main body colour.

Finally the central capsule EM-ER-A1D's contents were a hedgehog that was taller than both of the others, but also bared resemblance to Shadow. This time the hedgehog's body colour was a deep green and had pure black streaks on his head and arms that formed vein like patterns on his arm fur. The fur on his chest was black at its bottom but split into seven different highlights: dark green, navy blue, dark yellow, grey, dark cyan, dark magenta, and dark scarlet further up as the tuft began to split into its various strands. Instead of two back spikes this hedgehog sported six, running in two parallel lines down his back.

Shadow could tell however that the central hedgehog was different from the others. Shadow had the ability to sense chaos energy and, whilst the other two hedgehogs had that energy surrounding them, the central also did, but it was a pitch-black aura of energy that Shadow could sense. As black as his streaks and somehow blacker than Shadow's own black colouration.

_Just who are these hedgehogs? And how did Eggman create them to look exactly like us when we didn't even exist in this world until recently?_

"Well Sonic. I think this is the answer to your question." Shadow said.

"Yeah..." Sonic replied

It was then that the sound of an evil laugh met his ears coming from behind him.

Both of them ducked back into the vent just time to see Dr. Eggman himself make his way into the room. In his hands were two more chaos emeralds, one scarlet, and the other light green.

_That makes three emeralds. _Shadow made a mental note. _So far they follow the same colour pattern as our own emeralds, but I still can't be sure._

Shadow watched as Eggman pulled a panel out from the flooring beneath the left and right capsules, and placed the green and red emeralds inside the left and right panels respectively.

"Hoohoohoohoho! It isn't going to be much longer now. With those two annoyances gone for good I can finally carry on with my plan without any more hindrances. This took too long, but in the end all of that research and experimenting finally paid off. Now these three shall enable my ultimate plan to begin. Hohohoho! Their combined powers will surely be enough to get the job done and then finally I can take over this planet once and for all. Now all that's left to do is use the emeralds to awaken them. Obviously this one needs all eight emeralds to but once these two awake, that will not be a problem to gather the rest. Hohohohoho! Now it begins. My two hedgehogs

Sonic and Shadow watched him as the emeralds began to glow and their energy seeped into the two capsules, illuminating them in green and red light the two hedgehogs within felt the power enter them. And as the power entered them, they stirred slightly in their stasis. The central one also seemed to shake slightly, but then settled again.

Sonic and Shadow watched Eggman remove the emeralds and seal up the panels once again. He then left the room again, leaving the two of them to think about what to do next.

"Well this little mission certainly gave us more than we asked for." Sonic said finally.

"Let's get out. We have what we came for. We can figure out what to do next once we're clear of this base. Hurry up. You're the one at the front now."

"I'm movin', I'm movin' geez!"

* * *

><p>Now dawn was breaking, as finally Sonic and Shadow were back where they started off, on the roof of the skyscraper. They were watching the first rays of the sun turn the dark sky to violet, and then to the pale blue of morning.<p>

"So. You're saying we search for the remaining emeralds?" Sonic asked.

"That's right. The more we have, the better. We already know that Eggman has two of them, and we have one. From what we heard it seems that there are eight emeralds total. That leaves five more still out there to find." Shadow answered.

"From what Eggman was saying, it seems that he needs all eight to complete that project; so if we get to them before he does then he won't be able to finish his plan. Besides I don't know the extent of our adversary's power. I've never seen those three hedgehogs before, and an unknown enemy is always the hardest to defeat. So it's imperative that we have the advantage."

"All the better. Eggman doesn't seem to know about us, so we pretty much have free reign to swipe em. Alright! This'll be a piece a' cake. I'll race ya to see who gets one first!" Sonic taunted, leaping off the skyscraper's roof and running down its side to the city below.

"Hmph. Still as impatient as ever. That's another thing I would've liked him to lose. Never mind. I know what it's like to have no memory, so I can't really blame him."

Shadow stood at the edge of the rooftop, watching Sonic's blue form fly through the city. He pulled out the purple emerald once again.

"Hmph. Hope you can keep up with me old friend. CHAOS CONTROL!"

A second later he was by Sonic's side as the two of them left the city, and ran out towards the new day and whatever the future held for them.

**I'm a lot happier with this chapter now than I was before. I understand I produce these at a slow pace, but that is kind of a commonplace thing with writers my age, who have prior obligations due to school/college/university work. I'm of this group, but I haven't given up on this fanfic, just waiting to get out of the traffic jam. Also, I really would like to see you posting comments and reviews about my chapters. It helps me in more ways than you think and I value viewer input very highly. I really could use the advice, input and motivation.**

**Thanks a lot. You guys are great.**


	4. Chapter 3: The Hunt

**Wow. The end of January already? Sheesh. I can only imagine how long you guys must have waited. Well the waiting is finally over. I've managed to finally get this chapter together. On with the story! And sorry for the long wait. Hopefully it will be worth it.**

**Chapter 3: The Hunt**

"But seriously Shadow. What is it that's following us?" Sonic called out to his partner.

"I don't know!" Was the answer he got back. "All that seems to be clear is that whatever it is doesn't seem friendly."

The two Hedgehogs looked around the edge of the jungle clearing that they were currently standing in, peering through the dense plants, trying to spot their pursuer. Nothing but the thickets met their gaze.

Shadow warned to his Sonic. "We've gotta keep moving Sonic. It's pointless standing around. It'll just give our follower chance to attack. Come on! If we can reach the swamp then we can keep a better eye out for our pursuer."

"Gotcha" Sonic replied and a second later the two of them were gone.

As he was running Shadow thought aloud. "This is really worrying. Whatever it is has been following us ever since we started collecting the emeralds, it seems that wherever we go that presence is always there. I still haven't a clue what it is, but it's never shown itself to me properly." "Wait a sec. Are you saying that you've met this thing before?" "I guess there's a bit of explaining to do. The truth is that this thing has been on my tail for at least a day now."

"What? So you're saying that this thing has been pursuing the two of us?" Sonic asked, slightly shocked.

"Yes" Shadow replied. "It makes sense. Now that I think about it. Back then... "

* * *

><p>2 Days Earlier...<p>

The daybreak was only just upon them as the two hedgehogs began their search. The city was now far behind them as they entered a barren area with many chasms and canyons rising up and dropping down as they carried on. The place seemed devoid of life, with only a few stretches where trees and bushes grew. Fortunately for Sonic and Shadow, due to it still being early morning, the place had not had time for the intense heat of the sun to turn these badlands into a heat haze, so the temperature was still at a cool setting. Even so there was definite warmth spreading through the crevices and cracks of the ground.

"I still don't understand why we had to start so early, my legs aren't properly warmed up yet, I feel like I'm going nowhere." Sonic complained, as he sped through the steep canyon at at least 200mph.

"You should be thankful." Shadow replied back. "By the time this place hits midday, the temperature will be like that of a volcano, and judging by how fast we're going our body temperature will be skyrocketing before the heat even has a chance to set in. Besides, the cooler this place is the better. The heat interferes with the emerald's power of locating each other. It's better that we come early then we'll have the least amount of trouble locating this first emerald."

"Sheesh. You're always right to the point aren't ya? I'll remember not to ask next time."

"Asking is fine, provided it's not too often. It's the complaining I find annoying."

"Hey! I still do these things in the end, don't I?" Sonic turned his head in annoyed defiance. It wasn't too serious though. He knew that Shadow was right, though he didn't really like to admit it. Sonic turned his head back to the front again, replacing his annoyed expression with a confident grin. Then, without warning Shadow, he suddenly quickened his pace and sped off at about 600mph.

"Hey? Hold on! Come back here you asshole!" Shadow shouted at the trail of dust his friend had left in his wake, quickening his own pace at the same time and managing to catch up.

"I thought you said that your legs hadn't warmed up yet!" He said angrily.

"Hehe. Did I really say that? I was just kidding. This speed is just my jogging pace." Sonic said laughing, still with a cheeky smirk on his face.

"Why you little! I'll show you **fast**" Shadow then quickened his own speed and then, without warning he used chaos control to leap a good way ahead. He looked back to Sonic, now with an arrogant smirk.

"Hey! Wait a moment!" Sonic yelled. "No chaos control you bastard! That's not a fair race!"

"Really? As far as I was aware this was never a race in the first place," Shadow retorted. "Besides it's like I said before. The quicker we do this, the better. Either way the emerald is shining pretty brightly now. We must be close."

"Fine. But one of these day we need a proper race. No chaos control, just a race to win."

"Suits me fine. Now how about finding that emerald?"

"You got it! Let's go." Sonic then sped off ahead once again and Shadow with him.

* * *

><p>It was late evening now, and the sun had already left the sky. Darkness was beginning to fall onto the roof of the skyscraper that the two hedgehogs had now set up as their base camp. Though today had been dry, there were small puddles of water still on the roof despite the temperature still being at a mild degree.<p>

"Well that sure worked well. Got a bit complicated but at least we now have two emeralds." Sonic said, grinning and sitting down and leaning back against the roof. In his hand were the spoils of the day's hunt: the white emerald gleaming next its sibling, the purple emerald.

"Don't get too excited Sonic. This only puts us on equal numbers with Eggman and we still have four more to locate. And if all of them are in the same position of obtaining as these two then we'll have our work cut out for us." Shadow replied, looking out towards the oncoming night.

He thought back to what had happened. They'd found the emerald caught on a ledge, overlooking a deep chasm that was located deep within the heart of a mountain. It was easy enough to obtain, but the moment Shadow had removed the emerald a cave in had occurred, and Shadow's chaos control wouldn't work so Sonic had needed to quickly dash them out before they were sealed in.

"Eh. Not really." Sonic said, putting down the emeralds so as to rest his head against his hands. "That was pretty easy if you ask me. Apart from the heat of that place and that cave in, it was actually pretty fun." he added cheerfully.

"Well, it's good to see you're enjoying it. You had hardly any work to do. What amazes me is how I couldn't simply use chaos control whilst I was in there. I never had that problem before I arrived is this wor- oh shit!" Shadow suddenly covered his mouth, a startled look in his eyes.

"Hey Shadow, what's wrong?" Sonic asked, slightly surprised by this sudden behavior. "You just remember something?"

"What? Oh right." Shadow's mind was elsewhere, but Sonic's question brought him out of it. "No, that wasn't it. It was something else, none of your concern." He replied curtly.

_Damn. That was far too close. Good thing he didn't notice. I can't let him find out that neither of us are from this world. If he did I fear it would snap him out of his stasis and he wouldn't be able to find what he needs. I'll need to be more careful with what I say from now on._

"So Shadow, where might we find the next emerald?... Shadow?... Hey Shadow!"

"Huh?" Shadow was once again jolted from his train of thought by Sonic.

"Sheesh. What's with you? Fine. I'll ask again. Where might we find the next Emerald?

"Oh. Uhh... Somewhere off to the west of here. I'm not sure how far though."

"Alright then. When do we set off?"

"First light, tomorrow morning. That'll give us time to rest. Now that we have two Emeralds we can both use Chaos Control over long distances, so that's what we'll do to get there."

"What? No way. It's more fun to race."

"Well too bad. This isn't a game we're playing Sonic. The quicker we get the emeralds the quicker we can stop Eggman, and I'm almost certain that whatever it is that was in those capsules is not going to be an easy fight, after all we saw Eggman use the chaos emeralds to give them their powers."

"Whatever" Sonic said yawning. "I'm tired. I'm going to try and get some time to rest. I'll worry about those hedgehogs when we have to go against them." He finished, shutting his eyes, falling asleep quickly."

Shadow watched him as he slept, wondering how it was so easy for him to stay so relaxed and casual. Though he never admitted it, he sometimes wished that he could sit back and relax every once in a while. He was always so focused on what he did that he never had time to cut loose. Even when he wasn't doing anything, he always had something he was troubled about and could never put his mind to rest. Even now he was certain that there was a danger where they were, though he could see none. He once again thought of what he said in the letter. An unknown enemy is always the hardest to defeat. It seemed that nearly all of their enemies were ones they didn't know about.

_This isn't going to be an easy task. _Shadow thought to himself quietly, as he kept watch through the night.

* * *

><p>Present Time...<p>

"So you thought that someone was watching us that night?" Sonic asked worriedly. They were getting close to the swampy areas now and there was a rising level of humidity in the air.

"I'm not certain, but I sensed a presence there that night. Something other than the two of us was watching, but I couldn't see it. I could feel it though, a threatening presence in the air. I thought it was just paranoia before, but it proved to be correct." Shadow replied as he ran.

"And you think that it was whatever is following us."

"I can't be sure of that yet. We'll find out when we reach the swamp. I have a hunch though."

"What about yesterday? Does that mean that you didn't tell me the full story back then?"

"Fine. I'll tell you. Yesterday when we set off to explore the factory complex..."

* * *

><p>Yesterday Morning...<p>

Today the morning was chilly, and there was mist clinging to the cold air, as the sun arose its rays were caught and distorted by the mist giving the city a hazy golden glow. On the roof where the Hedgehogs were, the mist was heavier than the air around it and the puddles on the rooftop had gotten bigger. As tired as Shadow was after being unable to sleep, he wasn't feeling crabby or irritated by Sonic's loud snoring.

_This will probably be the only time that I've actually been thankful that Sonic snores loudly._ Shadow thought, yawning as he sat there. _If it weren't for him I probably would've let my own fatigue stop me from keeping alert._

He peered through the mist, trying to see as best he could. He'd kept his eyes sharp all through the night, keeping watch for anything dangerous. Nothing had appeared, or attacked at least, however Shadow could still sense that same sinister presence that had kept him alert. He still couldn't identify what or where this presence was coming from though.

"Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhaaaaahhh. Mornin' Shadow." Shadow hadn't even noticed Sonic stirring and jumped slightly at his loud yawn. "Woah. You sure seem on edge. What happened? Something on your mind?"

"No. Just got this prickly feeling in my back, like I'm being watched." At this remark Sonic laughed.

"Hehehe. I can easily give you the reasons for both of those - I'm watching you, and the prickly feeling's because you got quills on your back, duh?" A vein pulsed in Shadow's temple.

"You idiot. That's not it at all. I just didn't get much sleep."

"Ahhhhhhh." Sonic said in a sarcastic tone. "That would explain why you're more grumpy. It's a good thing your fur is black. You can't see the bags under your eyes. Ya know Shadow. You really need to sleep every once in a while. It'd do your complexion a load of good."

"And let you keep watch for threats? There's no way I can trust you with that. Anyway, your unbearable cheek is a sign that you're fully awake, so lets get going. There's a strong signal from the emeralds coming from the west, we may be lucky and actually find two this time."

"Alright! Now you're talking! Lets get this show on the road." Sonic yelled and leapt off the roof, once again leaving Shadow his wake to follow behind.

_At least I give him due warning_ was Shadow's final thought before he disappeared. _I guess we won't be using chaos control after all._

He soon caught up to Sonic and started running alongside him.

"Sonic. Catch!" Shadow called to him, throwing him the white emerald. "Now I can tell where you are, and now if anything happens to either one of us at least it won't be two emeralds that we lose."

"Gotcha!" Sonic shouted back. "Can you tell how far away they are?"

"As far as I can tell they are in different locations in the same area." Shadow replied "We'll need to split up to find them. Make sure you don't lose that emerald otherwise it'll take more than a sorry for you to get away with it." He warned.

"Fine. Same applies to you though." Sonic retorted.

"No problem." Shadow said coolly. "We're getting close. We split up here, meet back at the skyscraper with at least two emeralds each. Got it?"

"Got it! Time to get to work! Yeah!" Sonic shouted, speeding ahead out of sight.

_I best get going too. _Shadow thought to himself, warping away again.

* * *

><p>It didn't take Sonic long to reach the area where the emerald was indicating. He was looking out over a vast industrial works that stretched as far as the eye could see. Everywhere was a mess of pipes and brick buildings, the skyline was dotted all over with cooling towers &amp; smoke stacks that blocked out the sun with the dark clouds of smoke that they were producing.<p>

"Pheeeeeewwwwww..." Sonic breathed. "Quite the hiding place for a chaos emerald or two. Makes sense - they're unlimited sources of power for this place." As Sonic surveyed the area, he stared at the clouds blanketing the sky.

_What a huge amount of pollution; this place alone probably produces a good percentage of it. This place'll probably shut down if I take the emerald..._

"Alright. Seems I'll be doing both myself and Mobius a favor by taking the emerald" he said cheerily. "This'll be a real piece of-gyaaaahhh!" Sonic sank to his knees, clutching his head. The pain had returned, but this time, instead of a voice he saw a vision of a landscape just like this, and a figure darting through it at break-neck speed.

"_Look familiar hero?"_

Before he could really focus his eyes though he was snapped back into reality.

"Woahh. What was that?" he wondered aloud, vexed, as he tried to remember some of the details.

_That was different from the last ones that I've had._ _I saw something this time. This is weird, what was it I saw?_

As he thought, something popped up in his mind, some letters that he had seen on a large sign as the figure darted past. He thought harder and then he remembered some of the letters:

-HE-C-L P-AN-

He could only remember that, and the mysterious figure that had dashed by.

"This definitely isn't normal" he said finally. "Maybe I'll ask Shadow when I've found the emerald." Then he replaced his puzzled look with his usual grin.

He then said "and speaking of emerald, I should get hunting. I won't figure this out by myself so I'll just forget about it for now. Besides it seems to be helping me. So why should I worry?" He took one last look at the sky then zoomed off towards the works.

"Time the get to work. Wooo!"

* * *

><p>Shadow materialized inside a factory boiler room. The room was big, with piping lining the room like spaghetti strands, and huge boiler tanks taking up the majority of the room's free space; there were metal walkways lining the space above, and it was one of these walkways that Shadow was standing on. The room was steamy, with liquid condensing on the vats and pipes, but there seemed to be nobody around. The purple emerald was glowing strongly now, and he could sense the immense chaos energy of another emerald nearby. He could see a door on the other side of the room, with the words - 'KEEP OUT: Generator Room is out of bounds to unauthorized personnel' written on its front.<p>

'Just what I'm after,' he said to himself. 'The emerald is no doubt powering this place.' as he crossed the walkway.

_Hmph... What a waste of unlimited power. _He thought coldly, as he reached the door._ Having its natural energy that keeps the world alive to be used against it and pollute the planet. Chaos Emeralds mustn't be used for this. This is why they should be protected from people like Eggman, who use them for things like this._

He tried to open the door without any luck. _Should've guessed. _He thought, frowning. 'Guess there is nothing for it,' and he began charging chaos energy in his hand.

'Chaos...' He began, then without warning released the energy directly...behind him! 'Spear!'

The Chaos Spear soared through the air, the steam parting as it passed through, hitting the opposite end of the hall and causing a small explosion.

'I thought I was just being paranoid before,' Shadow said, turning to face the supposedly empty room, 'but I'm sure now that it wasn't my imagination,' he continued, readying himself for a fight. 'You've been following me and Sonic ever since we found that second emerald,' he said to steamy air. 'Are you gonna show yourself so that I can fight you properly!'

No reply. Shadow was sure though that he wasn't alone. He could feel the same sinister presence that he'd felt back on the skyscraper, and he was certain now that it wasn't just his imagination and that there was a danger lurking in the room. He still couldn't identify its source though. It seemed to be all over the room at the same time.

'I've gotta warn you,' he said dangerously, sweat rolling down his forehead, 'that I really hate not knowing who my opponent is. You'd better come out and face me properly!' he yelled...Nothing.

'Urrrrrrggghhh! Chaos, Spear! Spear! Spear! SPEAR!' he shouted, firing off multiple chaos spears all over the room to no avail. 'Show yourself!'

Shadow was allowing his anger to get the better of him, and he was so bent on trying to reveal the unknown enemy that he wasn't watching where his Chaos spears were hitting. The boiler tanks were being barraged with Shadow's attacks and the strong steel of the tanks was unable to hold up against the destructive chaos energy. Leaks sprung all over every tank as they were repeatedly bombarded with chaos spears as the pressure increased inside them. They were close to blowing, as Shadow gradually calmed down...too late. The tanks exploded one after another, destroying the walkway that Shadow was on, sending him hard into one of the walls...and his grip on the purple emerald loosened, causing it to slide from his hands and fall into the accumulating pool of scalding hot water.

As Shadow's senses returned to him from the impact, he caught one final glance of the emerald as it vanished beneath the water, and the realization hit him.

"Damn!" he yelled, as he looked at his empty hand where the emerald had been a second ago. _Shit! I lost my temper and this happened, all because I couldn't see my enemy. Since when did I ever lose my temper __**that**__ quickly in the past?_ Shadow didn't have time to think any more because at that moment he came loose from the wall and began to fall himself. He quickly warped back to a surviving part of the walkway closest to the door and analyzed the current situation.

One emerald lost, another behind the door, the water level rising at a rapid rate, and the presence of an enemy that he still couldn't see. If he was to try to retrieve the dropped emerald he would end up being boiled alive, so the only option left was to destroy the door and retrieve the other emerald. With his plan worked out, Shadow blew the door with a concentrated chaos spear and quickly warped through to the opening. The water level had now reached the doorway, and was beginning to flow inside the room he was now in. Shadow quickly crossed to the generator containing what he was after, quickly pressing the emergency shut down button to allow the container to open and reveal the brightly glowing emerald. As Shadow removed the gem, alarm bells began sounding, as the water started to heat up the metal soles of his shoes.

'CHAOS CONTROL!' and he was gone, but just before he vanished, he could've sworn that he heard a faint chuckle in the air, before the room disappeared from sight.

Shadow reappeared a safe distance from the factory complex, watching as the entire area shut down. The smoke stopped billowing from the chimneystacks, all of the lights dimmed and shorted out, darkening the area, and gradually the sound of the machines died down until there was almost no sound. There was the sound of a small explosion somewhere out of sight.

Shadow was slightly out of breath, and his hands were shaking slightly.

_So. _He thought_. It wasn't all paranoia. There really is something that has been following us. Something that I still don't know the identity of. I don't know why I lost control so easily. Could it be to do with the effect that the dimensional jump had on my mind, or was it because I was on edge. Either way, it's something that I'll need to keep better control of in the future. Just look at what it cost me, there's no way that I can find that lost emerald now. _Shadow then stared at the yellow emerald that he had in his hand. _At least I'm not down on the number of emeralds, but I couldn't increase my number. _Then his expression darkened slightly. _Sonic had better have another emerald with him when we get back to the skyscraper. We'll need it to face this new enemy. Even so, I don't particularly want to go back. I doubt I'll be let off lightly by him… No choice._

He turned his back on the shut down factory

'No time to look for survivors,' he said to himself, then sped off back towards the meeting point.

* * *

><p>"Alright. You had better have a <strong>really<strong> good excuse for this." Sonic said cockily, leaning back against the roof, juggling his two emeralds - the white one, and his newly obtained blue emerald with one hand, with a smug grin on his face and a both eyebrows lowered in a cocky manner.

"That depends on what you would call a really good excuse" Shadow defiantly replied, trying to replace his all too apparent embarrassment with his usual gruff persona, managing his normal frown albeit with a twitching brow. Sonic sniggered. "Y'know Shadow, that act you're putting on isn't very good;" this caused a vein to pulse in Shadow's temple and give him an obvious scowl, "but it's kinda funny. Alright I'll forgive you because you tried your hardest. I won't ask for any excuses either. I'm kinda surprised that you allowed yourself to lose an emerald too. Knowing you, you're someone who would hold onto the emeralds as if your life depended on it. Something really big must've happened to make you lose one."

"I was simply tired, and my composure broke," Shadow responded, his pride and concern not allowing him to reveal to Sonic what actually happened. "You can hardly blame me either. I was up all night, it's natural to be running on a short fuse. Besides that doesn't matter. We brought our number of chaos emeralds up to three and that's what matters."

"It could've been four if you didn't put yourself through so many sleepless nights. You didn't have to be up all night you know. You should get a bit more sleep and let me keep watch tonight. Can't have you hurting yourself for my sake. It makes me feel guilty." Sonic offered. "Trust you with keeping watch? Give me one really good reason why I should trust you with that. You'll be asleep before I am." "Hey I find that slightly offensive. I can get anything done if I put my mind to it. Besides you need the rest, look what it made you do. Let me watch your back for a change, you've done enough."

Shadow looked at Sonic, and finally a slight smile can across his face. "I don't need your help Sonic, you need mine. I appreciate the offer but I can manage just fine. I always found it hard to sleep anyway. You get some rest, you deserve it more than me." "But Shadow," "No buts, now get to sleep." The blue hedgehog sighed.

"Fine. But promise me, that once we get this thing sorted out you make up for every night that you should've spent asleep." Shadow smirked. "That's going to be a lot then."

* * *

><p>Present Time...<p>

"I get it now. That would explain why you were so edgy all that time. But why didn't you tell me this before?" Sonic asked.

"I didn't want to worry you. And I wasn't sure myself if this presence actually means us any harm, or if it's to do with Eggman. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before" Shadow replied apologetically, "anyway, Sonic! I can see it finally! We've reached the swamp!" he finished, as they emerged from the trees into an area with a clear skyline. The ground under their feet was boggy, and a wide dark lake met their eyes.

"Perfect" Shadow said. There's only one way to approach us now, and that's from the front. What's even better is that there must be an emerald nearby. This one's reacting really strongly." It was true. All three emeralds were now gleaming brightly, and there was faint light coming up from the bottom of the lake.

"Stand back to back Sonic. That way we can cover both sides." "Got it." The two hedgehogs backed towards each other until they were standing with their backs against other, their eyes focused on the dark thicket of trees in front of them. However if they had looked behind them they would have seen the trail of bubbles making their way towards them from the lake's center, they would have seen the two large slitted eyes emerge from under the surface of the lake, and then submerge again. Suddenly Shadow felt another threatening presence right behind them.

"Sonic! Behind you!" he shouted suddenly. "What? Shadow, what do yo-" He couldn't finish his sentence, because suddenly the water a few feet away had erupted and something gigantic had closed its jaws around his torso and dragged him under the surface.

"Sonic!" Shadow yelled, stretching out his arm, far too late..

_No _He thought to himself. _I can't swim either. I'd drown if I attempted to save them. _Even as he thought it though he caught something dash past him into the water out of the corner of his eye. He looked but saw nothing. Then his attention was turned back to the lake, and the strange phenomenon that was occurring.

From the center, the water's surface dipped down, spreading out to the lake's edges and a current started to form going round it - a whirlpool, and then, suddenly the eye of the whirlpool shot up into the air, creating a tall water geyser and at its top was a giant alligator - Sonic in its jaws, having been forced into the air by the upward current underneath it. Then the geyser instantly solidified, cutting through the alligator's tough back scales, impaling it on a spike of ice and causing it to loosen it's grip on Sonic, as it let out a cry of pain before its life left it.

Shadow stared at what he had just witnessed, his mouth open, and then he ran to where Sonic had landed.

"You okay?" Shadow asked, as Sonic got to his feet, coughing. He couldn't help but notice the deep bloody scars on his chest, left by the alligator's teeth. "Yeah. I'm alive at least. But what the hell just happened? I went down, then I was sucked into the whirlpool with that alligator. Next thing I knew I was up in the air and the alligator was dead.

"I can answer that for you."

"Huh?" "What the?"

"Hahahahaha. Up here."

"Wait." Shadow suddenly gasped. "I know that laugh."

"Ahhh. You do remember. Seems that I did give it away back then."

Both hedgehogs looked up to where the sound was coming from: the top of the geyser. A figure was standing on top of the alligator's corpse, with something in his hand. He then leapt off the spike, landing a few meters away from the two of them.

He stood up. He began to walk towards them. The glowing cyan blue emerald in his hand was the same colour as his fur, with streaks of lime green running along his head and limbs. The aqua blue crystal on his wrists and boots gleamed from the sun shining through the clearing. His light green eyes, the same colour as the green emerald used to awaken him, scanned the two hedgehogs that were staring back at him.

"I know you." They both mouthed.

**Wow! I really don't know how to apologize for this. I'm sorry for all of you that have been patiently awaiting this chapter. This took a lot longer than I intended because of writer's block due to my English GCSE exams, however now that they are out of the way I finally found the time to get this done. Once again I am sorry and hope that this chapter was worth the wait. I can't guarantee when the next chapter will be released, but it WILL be released. I will never abandon this story and no matter how long it takes I will finish it.**


	5. Chapter 4: The Ally (Rewritten)

**It seems my ideas are gradually coming to me, hence why I'm redoing these chapters. I didn't actually change this chapter that much, just some changes to the character's persona. Nothing too major. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy.**

**Chapter 4 - The Ally**

The hedgehog came to a stop a couple of yards short of Sonic and Shadow, who continued to stare at him. He had a small, un-emphasized smile on his face, as if he was appreciating a joke that only he understood. His brow height was somewhat centered - not too low as to give him a stern look, but also not too high as to make him look light hearted, but somewhere in between the two. His eyelids where rounded, similar to Sonic's but also had their corners pointed like Shadow's, albeit they were lower down and not as sharp as his own; and his eyes themselves were a pale emerald green colour - the same colour as the green emerald that they had seen Eggman use to bring him to life with. His body language hadn't been threatening at all as he had walked towards them, but it seemed to them as if he was constantly thinking about what the next move he should take would be. The impression that Shadow got just by observing him was one of confidence, and whilst his expression gave him an honest look, there was also a hint of secrecy to it. Shadow could also sense that whoever this person was, he seemed to be smart, maybe considerably so by how much thought he was putting into all of his movements. Just _what is this guy's angle? _Shadow thought, _I'm certain now that he's the one that's been following us all this time? He's giving off that same presence that I've been feeling, but he's not being threatening now, not like before._

It seemed to be a long time before the newcomer spoke, when he did speak however he seemed to be thinking carefully about every word that left his mouth.

'I can understand that you are wary of me,' he began, 'and I don't blame you either. You two seem to be unsure of who your enemies are, so you think twice about trusting anyone. You especially,' he said, looking in Shadow's direction.

'Hmph, and what makes you think that you are an exception?' Shadow retorted, automatically putting his guard up. 'Even though you saved Sonic I know that you're with Eggman so I know that trusting you is out of the question.'

"You knew? I see. So you **do** have an agenda against Eggman." The stranger responded. "Well I won't pretend that it's true. Dr. Eggman was the one that brought me to life. And I was with him for a bit of time, however I'm not anymore."

"Believable" Shadow said unconvinced. "Watching us whilst remaining hidden doesn't give much to back that statement up."

"Think what you will about my intentions. It's impossible for you to know for sure what they are. Only I can be sure of that and only I can be certain that I'm not your enemy."

"If that were the case then your presence wouldn't have felt threatening. Nor would you have needed to hide from us."

"It's understandable for you to think that. Paranoia and lack of knowledge are both key fear inducers."

He looked at the two of them. The black hedgehog didn't seem threatened by him, but he wasn't buying what he was saying either._ Clearly confident in his own power if he doesn't deem me as dangerous to him, and also not the trusting type either. A natural lone wolf? Why then does he have company?_ He looked towards Sonic, who hadn't yet said anything but looked at him when he made eye contact, a puzzled look on his face. _Confused or doesn't know what to think if he's being silent. He's not being defensive though, but he's not convinced either… yet. _

"Very well," he said finally. "I suppose there's no hope for me to become an ally. I won't bother the two of you again from now on. I won't be needing these either, so you can have them too." With that he pulled out another object from behind his back, which Sonic and Shadow recognized instantly: the purple emerald; the one that Shadow had lost during the incident at the factory complex.

"You know," the hedgehog added, "now that I think about it, it's really my fault that you lost it in the first place. Then again, if it wasn't for me then you wouldn't have got it back either."

At this he chuckled. "Ironic isn't it? Here you go anyway." He finished and tossed the chaos emeralds to the two of them.

"I only wish that you'd let me help you. I could've been one of your biggest allies, but then again I also couldn't have been." He then turned and began to walk away.

They watched him go, their brains still trying to process what had just happened. Sonic was the first to speak up.

"I'm not too sure what to think anymore. What exactly is going on, cause I can't tell at the moment."

"There are a lot of questions that I want to know the answers to, and most of them are related to him."

He looked back towards the pale blue hedgehog, who was slowly walking away from them along the lakeshore.

_What is his game?_

"Hey Shadow."

"What is it?"

"Do you think that he was telling the truth?"

"Maybe."

"Do you think that we just lost a potential ally? I mean it is true. He was in Eggman's base, and you said he has been watching, but he's never attacked us at all or even made out that he is working against us."

"People who conceal themselves in order to spy are not people that should be trusted. That's a standard fact."

"Maybe. I don't completely trust him either, but I think that he has given us reason to."

"These you mean?"

"Uh-huh. There's reason enough right there."

Shadow looked down at the chaos emerald in his hand.

"C'mon, seriously. Would an enemy really give up two chaos emeralds, let alone hand them to his opponents? Besides, enemy or not, he helped me out back there. I always appreciate help in any form, conditional or not, enemy or ally, and one favor I think deserves one in exchange."

"I can't make an ally out of someone that I don't trust."

"So you'll let him go without letting him prove trustworthy? Don't just dismiss him straight off the mark," protested Sonic. "I know that our situation makes it difficult but I think we can both agree that help would be much appreciated, but that won't happen if you can't trust anyone. Besides you've already seen what he's capable of." At this Sonic looked back at the massive spire of ice that had impaled the alligator.

"If you ask me, I'd like that on our side. I'm perfectly set to allow him to join us but if you don't agree, then I won't argue."

Shadow looked at Sonic, then back at the hedgehog that was still walking away. _I didn't see any indication that he was lying. He's not giving the whole picture, but he's not lying either. That alligator was able enough to kill sonic, but he intervened and stopped it, and gave us two chaos emeralds. Maybe it's too early to trust him, but that intellect that I saw that he had could be useful to us, as could the power that he's shown. And even if he does betray us, I don't think he's undefeatable. Fine then._

"Hey! Stop one moment!" Shadow called. The hedgehog stopped and looked back. "Yes?"

"Just what do you plan to do now?"

"I have a score to settle with my creator, as well as some other unfinished business. Why do you ask?" He asked, although in truth he knew the reason why.

"Don't get me wrong about this," Shadow started, "I don't trust you, but I can tell that your skills are useful. Eggman is also our enemy, so if you truly have a score to settle with him, join us and we can all settle our disputes with Eggman working together."

The hedgehog swallowed a grin. _Perfect._

* * *

><p>"Before anything else I want everything explained." Shadow began.<p>

It was late afternoon, and the three of them had returned to the rooftop after leaving the jungle. The streets far below were still full of citizens trying to finish off their daily business before heading home, and the sun hung low in the sky. Shadow was sitting against the roof, facing the newcomer with his arms crossed and a searching look in his eyes. Sonic was lying down with his hands behind his head, which was also turned in the direction of the new hedgehog. Beside him were the five chaos emeralds: the white emerald from the canyon cave, the blue and yellow emeralds from the factory complex, and the cyan and purple emeralds that their enigmatic new ally had given them.

"As you wish, but could you first tell me your names?" He asked

'Sure,' Sonic responded, 'Call me Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!'

"Shadow the Hedgehog if you really must know, now explain yourself."

"Of course. Well then Sonic and Shadow, I promise you, when I'm done it'll all make sense," he said, as he began his explanation.

"I wasn't given a name, only the experimental code - WA-5E."

"That's the code that we saw on your capsule." Sonic added.

"I was one of three sentient life form experiments that Dr. Eggman created to carry out various tasks. Myself and my twin brother: 1N-FE-RN0 were awakened first thanks to the power of the chaos emeralds."

"You mean those other two hedgehogs that were with you are your brothers?"

"Not entirely. All three of us were created using the same DNA, but the doctor altered our genetic coding to meet certain specifications. Like with me, I don't have that breath taking speed that the two of you have, but my IQ level is even higher than the doctor's, and I can also use chaos control with an emeralds power, but that is the limit of my basic capabilities."

"If that's true," Sonic said, "Then how the hell did you manage to manipulate the lake water and turn that overgrown alligator into Croc a' la Ice Stick?"

"Hehe. Good question. Are you aware of the **full **powers of Mobius' chaos emeralds?"

"Normally I'd say yes, but from your tone and our current situation I'm guessing there's more."

"I find that hard to believe that two with such powerful chaos capabilities don't know."

"Then tell us. I'm intrigued."

"Alright. I'll need to start from the top though."

He then stood up and held out one of his hands.

"As I'm sure you know, the eight chaos emeralds are directly connected to Mobius itself," he began. "They hold the planet's unlimited natural power, and together keep the world in balance. It's possible for certain people who possess an essence known as natural chaos in their bodies to utilize the emerald's power. This power allows them to perform supernatural capabilities such as chaos control. The two of you both possess that natural chaos, as do I, so we are all able to effectively harness the emeralds energy to allow our bodies to have enhanced skill and power. There is however one other power that the emeralds possess."

As he was speaking the air around one of his hands had began to condense, and was forming what looked like a miniature cloud above the palm of his hand. Gradually the vapour condensed even more, cooling into a liquid until finally the hedgehog had a sphere of water in the palm of his hand.

"Each one of the emeralds possesses the power of one the planet's elements." At this the water instantly solidified into ice.

"The elements that create this planet: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Life, Space, Lightning, and Raw Energy are each contained in one of the chaos emeralds," the hedgehog said as the ice evaporated into thin air again. "Anyone with natural chaos can use these elements if their ability to harness it is strong enough, and if they know how to tap into the corresponding emeralds power. I am an exception however. I have the ability to manipulate water with minimal effort because the power of the green emerald - the elemental gem of water, was used to bring me to life. As such I don't need the green emerald to use the power. I can do it freely"

"How do you know all of this? Sonic asked. "I don't really know how long it's been for me, but what I do know you've been here for even less time. Your life's only been the last four days, so explain how you already know all of this."

For a second Shadow glanced at Sonic with a frown before looking back.

_That reaction was interesting. What exactly is the story with these two?_

The hedgehog looked awkward for the first time and lowered his head in slight discomfort.

"In all truth," He said reluctantly "I don't actually know that much at all. As I said, my IQ is incredibly high, and perhaps because my mind is still very young, I learn things very quickly and can understand them as well. So far my IQ has been my savior, but you're right. Four days is nowhere near enough time to learn. I'm not really sure how I'm talking like this either. From what I can tell, takes decades to accomplish, yet it comes to me naturally."

"Stay on topic." Shadow said sharply. "I understand that you can manipulate water, but that couldn't possibly allow you to completely conceal yourself whilst you were watching us. I want to know how you did that, although after hearing what you just said I can take a good guess."

The hedgehog was jerked out of his trail of thought.

"Oh. Right. Yes. You're quite correct. This one however I can't fully explain." He responded as he sat down once again. He then pulled something else out from behind his back and held it out for Sonic and Shadow to look at.

It was a gemstone - hexagonal cushion cut, which was about the same width as the hedgehog's palm. The crystal shell was transparent, and the inside was completely filled with what seemed to be fine, silvery glimmering particles that floated around freely (giving the same sort of effect to that of a cloudy crystal ball, except that the clouds were shiny silver), and at the crystals center the particles glowed a bright green and formed the shape of a symbol or rune at the crystal's heart that resembled a tidal wave.

"I already had this thing with me when I was born, so I don't know how I came into possession of it. From what I gather it wasn't Eggman. In fact he doesn't know about it. I don't actually know what it is. It's not a chaos emerald. The only clue I got was the rune within it - the same green colour as the green emerald and in the shape of a wave. I deduced it had some connection to the chaos emeralds, but from what I learnt about the emeralds I couldn't find any mention of it. Regardless, you're correct in that the power of the green emerald doesn't include all of my capabilities, but I discovered whilst learning my power over water that controlling it wasn't all I could do. From that I deduced that whatever this thing was, it was expanding the range of my skills, enabling me not just to control water, but also to become water itself. I still don't know what this crystal - The Water Crystal is, but with it's power, and that of the green emerald power within me, I can freely manipulate and become any form of water based substance. I can be puddles of water, I can be mist, or steam. I can merge my water body with other bodies of water, be it boiling water or lake water, and I can make that water become whirlpools, geysers, or tsunamis, and I can make that water evaporate into vapour, or solidify into ice. These are my capabilities. Impressed?"

"You bet ya!" Sonic said, certainly impressed. "You've got some really awesome powers," he added, then he turned to Shadow and giving him his trademark sideways grin.

"I have to say you have some useful skills," Shadow said to the hedgehog in agreement. "Though it seems you don't fully know everything yourself, what you've explained does make sense,"

"I'm pleased you understood it all, and I'm glad you approve" the hedgehog said in gratitude.

"I still don't understand the reasons behind what you're doing though, and all of your actions," Shadow said, once again putting on a searching expression at the newcomer. Why follow us all this time? Why give us the emeralds freely? Why openly tell us about your powers? What exactly is your business with Eggman? I want all of that explained."

The hedgehog paused for a moment, thinking to himself.

_Just how much should I tell them about my situation? I haven't asked about what it is that they have against my creator, but I need them to be able to help me awaken my brother and for that I need their trust. I do want to team up with them though. I'm still not sure what it was that made me so interested in them, it almost seemed like a bond, an attachment of some kind that drew me to them, as if I was connected to them in some way. There is also something very unfamiliar about the two of them compared to everybody else that I've seen. What's more interesting is that they also have something very familiar to me about them. _

_It's almost as if, as if they don't belong to this world, but do belong to it at the same time. More to find out it seems, but it can hopefully wait for now. I'll answer their questions, but I still don't really trust them completely myself, the darker one in particular._

'As you wish,' The hedgehog cleared his throat before he began.

"During the first day Dr. Eggman helped myself and my brother acclimatize to our surroundings, and teach us about this world and also most importantly the chaos emeralds. He also helped us learn how to use our different powers and abilities. The following day I then started examining Eggman's experiments and machinery, where I began to gain an understanding of the engineering and science behind his mad ideas, and how they could be used for different purposes. At the end of that day Eggman, being the impatient and self centered man that he is, set me and my twin brother our first task: finding and retrieving the remaining chaos emeralds. He didn't explain to us why."

"And you disobeyed his orders?"

"Not completely, and certainly not openly. He still believes that I am out following his orders. As I said before, Eggman created the three of us to carry out his dirty work. What he didn't predict was that his own genius would backfire on him. In order to grant us the emeralds power as well as an independent intelligence he had to give us minds that could think by themselves. That was the mistake he made. By giving us our own way of thinking he also gave us the ability to think for ourselves as well as an awareness of our actions. I initially agreed with Eggman's ideas, but as my mind developed and I inherited my own way of thinking I began to realize the consequences of his schemes and that made me grow disloyal to him. I do respect him for his genius though. His machines and creations are incredibly complex and impressive, which I can tell despite my short time here, and if I get the chance to in the future, I want to be able to modify and improve them so that they can be used in a more resourceful way."

"I don't have the same selfish desires that Eggman has though, and I have no intention of being his little marionette so that he can get what he wants. He doesn't realize this though, which makes him vulnerable. Now, getting back to where I trailed off from, Eggman gave us the mission to track down and locate the remaining chaos emeralds. I also discovered that same day that he had surreptitiously placed tracking devices on us both, so I duplicated the tracker for the device without Eggman knowing, and when we received the orders I pretended to obey them. As soon as I got away from the base I removed the tracking device and placed it on a bird while it was sleeping. I'm keeping track of where both the bird and my brother are at the moment, and when the time is right I'll retrieve the device. With Eggman finally off my quills I then headed off in my own direction."

"Why is it that you were following us though?"

"I'll explain that now. Despite disobeying Eggman's orders, I **was** still after the chaos emeralds, but not for Eggman. Due to the natural chaos within my body I was drawn towards their energy, and the strongest energy source that I could sense was north of my location, but what fascinated me was the fact the energy source was moving at a very rapid speed, faster than any animal or vehicle could travel. Intrigued, I followed the energy and, during the evening of two days ago, I reached this city where the energy had stopped its movement. Merging my body into the small amount of moisture in the air, I searched the city until I eventually discovered you two, up on this same roof. I could see that you had two of the emeralds in your possession already. I didn't know why you were collecting them, so I decided to tail you two until I could figure out why."

"That's all it was?"

"Yes, though I decided not to reveal myself straight away, so I stayed and waited. What I didn't anticipate was that you would keep watch all through the night," he said to Shadow. "I had to keep in liquid form so that you wouldn't discover me."

"Well you can't blame me for being cautious, especially when I could sense that you were there but couldn't see you," Shadow responded.

"I was impressed," the hedgehog said, "it takes worrying and immense willpower to be able to stay awake that long, and those things normally come when you can't tell what it is your worried about. I guess it was I in this case. Sorry I made you lose two nights of sleep."

"I'm used to it. You don't have to be sorry."

"You must be troubled by things a lot then."

"Aren't you meant to be explaining yourself?"

"You can't blame me for being concerned though."

"My problems are my own. Now finish your story whilst I'm still in the mood to listen."

"As you wish."

He readjusted his sitting position to make himself more comfortable.

"There's not much else to tell you. The following morning I followed you to the factory complex, and tailed you both at a distance. It wasn't coincidence Sonic that the route you took to the emerald was clear of security."

"You deactivated all of the security? And I thought it was just hero's luck."

"Correct. And if it weren't for me figuring out how to shut down the energy shield protecting the emerald it would have been impossible for you to reach."

Shadow gave Sonic a sideways glance at this.

"I helped Shadow as well, though not in a direct way," the hedgehog continued.

"I never asked for help."

"And I didn't need asking, as you were aware I was watching you back then, and you could sense that I was there but couldn't pinpoint where I was. Correct? That's because of the spacing between particles of liquid and gas; neither is as dense as a solid substance, and they have fewer particles in the same amount of space, but because I am solid substance by principle I…"

"I said stay on topic"

"Of course. After your attacks caused the boiler tanks to explode you were thrown against the wall and you dropped the emerald. You couldn't retrieve it because of the water temperature. With me though it's a different story. Due to you being distracted I managed to liquify myself and merge with the boiling water before you noticed, and I retrieved the emerald before it was too late. After you had escaped with the yellow emerald I increased the waters pressure and broke out of the factory by force, with the emerald in my possession. Now that I had an emerald myself I was able to use chaos control freely to follow you back to the skyscraper. I was meaning to give it you back while you were asleep but once again Shadow your tireless vigil stopped me from revealing myself."

"This morning though I made up my mind that I wanted to meet you properly. I had seen what you two were capable of by now and I knew that becoming your ally was the best option I had, and I knew that my skills would be valuable assets to you two. As a result I ventured to Hightide Jungle ahead of you, and managed to locate the cyan emerald, down at the bottom of a swamp lake that was home to a giant alligator. When you showed up, my initial plan to reveal myself was to lead you to the emerald and provide you with the assistance to obtain it, but that plan changed when you assumed I was chasing you and you ended up at the lake without meaning to. I was unsure of what to do next until the alligator got the jump on you and dragged Sonic into the lake. You know what happened after that."

Shadow paused before speaking, he too adjusting his position to be more comfortable.

"You've done your fair share of talking. I couldn't tell how much of it was true, but it certainly fits," he said slowly. "There is one more question I have, though. You mentioned during that last part that you were still after the chaos emeralds, though you didn't say why. If you were truly after the chaos emeralds you wouldn't have given two of them away freely, unless you had a reason to do so."

At this he stood up, now on the newcomer's eye level, and looked him straight in the face.

"What's the **real** reason why you wanted to ally yourself with us?"

The newcomer gave a small smile. "Astute. Very well. I don't hide something if people realize that I'm hiding it." He stood up himself.

"Please listen and understand. You remember me saying that Eggman didn't explain why he needed the emeralds? Well I didn't need the explanation. I'd already worked it out. Eggman wants them for the same reasons that I do, and yet they're not the same reasons either. You remember that there were three siblings that the doctor created, and two have already been awakened, me being one of them. That leaves one more sibling - Project EM-ER-A1D, that hasn't been awakened yet. In order for Eggman to awaken him he needs all eight chaos emeralds, which is why he sent me and my twin to retrieve the other emeralds. You also remember that I said that my intentions were different from Eggman's? That applies here. From what I can make out he created the three of us to carry out his schemes against the planet itself, and my younger brother is designed to be the strongest of the three. I want to put a stop to Eggman's schemes for good, so that I can awaken my sleeping brother and bring him up to help me stamp out Eggman once and for all. He made the mistake of creating us, and we will be his downfall."

"But how do we fit into this?"

"I can explain. By myself I knew that I had no chance of defeating the doctor, or his battle machinery. I knew that in order to do what I needed reinforcements, and all of the chaos emeralds. When I found you two I knew that I had found the reinforcement that I needed. After that I wanted to be able to become an ally to you, and in turn, you two allies to me. That's why I gave you the emeralds back then. I knew that you would be able to use them the right way, plus you already had three of them. All I can hope now is that you'll help me lay waste to Eggman's schemes and help me awaken my brother. After that he and I will help you with whatever task it is that you're trying to complete."

"So that's why you were so interested in us." Sonic said. "I can't say no to your request. You're genuinely trying to do something good. I'll always help someone who's trying to do that. Of course I'll help. Shadow. What do you think? I can only say that it's fair for us to help him. It's up to you though. I'll help him either way, but I won't force you."

Shadow seemed to think for several moments before saying anything.

"You've told us everything we wanted to know without protest, you gave us the emeralds and you've unconditionally helped us out several times without us realizing. I'd say it's fair for us to return the favor. You don't have my full trust, but you have some of it, and your endeavors and antagonism against Eggman is the same as ours. Yes. I'll help you do it, and I'll consider you an ally for this venture. If you should prove traitorous though, I will not rest until you're dead."

The hedgehog let the words sink in, before going onto his knees and lowering his head.

"Thank you," he said clearly. "I promise now that I'll help you and you have my full gratitude. Thank you both of you, now let's draw up a plan of attack."

"Wait just one damn moment!" Sonic's comment drew their attention.

"If your going to be our ally then we need to be able to call you something, and my friends have names."

"Friend?"

"Of course. Any one who helps me, or I choose to help I consider my friend, and in turn I support them all the time. I may not know you very well, but I still think of you as my friend, and my friends need names."

The hedgehog looked at Sonic, who has smiling and holding out his hand. "You said your code was WA-5E. In that case I'll call you uh… Wase... Wa-Se… no that doesn't work. Wait a sec. 5 can also be written V... Wave! That's what we'll call you. Wave! In fact, it's almost as if Eggman based your code off of it. Hell it even fits your character - blue fur, your water capabilities.

_He's right. It is as though that was meant to be my name. Maybe it is my real name. I do like the name. You're a bit confusing Sonic, but thank you._

He smiled and grabbed Sonic's hand with his own.

"Very well. Wave the Hedgehog at your service."

Sonic grinned. "Good to meet you pal."

Shadow smiled a small smile as well as the three of them sat down in a circle.

"Hmph. Finally time for action."

**I'm pretty pleased with myself about this chapter. It took some time, but I'm really glad that what I had planned for this chapter worked smoothly. I'm sorry if this chapter was slightly boring, but that tends to be how backstories and character introductions are. Either way I have finally managed to get the first new character: Wave into the story, and I really hope that I portrayed him as a having definite depth of character. Characters that don't have that tend to be very boring, and people tend not to like them, so I hope that Wave hasn't fallen into that trap, and why should he? After all he is one of this story's main characters, but maybe that's saying too much. On a note about the next chapter, I'm aware you've been waiting a while, and the reason for that being that I'm going through the time consuming stage of life that is higher education. As such I recommend any readers not to expect anything on a regular basis. Chapter 5 - The Siege isn't non-existent. The majority of it is already written, but it's not finished yet. I realize now that it wasn't a good idea to create something like this at my current stage in life, for these exact reasons. Therefore, I'll still be working on this, and formulating ideas, which I've done a lot of in my spare time, but production will be slow during this time. Stay tuned though. You never know when I might produce something. Thanks for reading, and this story has not been abandoned.**


	6. Chapter 5: The Siege (Part 1)

**Hello viewers and readers of this fic. Been a while right? Well I finally have something for you to read. I already made clear what shape my schedule of working on this is, and the sort of time I can actually devote to this story, so check out the description in the most recent chapter if you want to know about that. In this chapter we will get a decent amount of action and my first attempt at creating battle scenes. On one other note, this chapter ended up so long that I made the decision of splitting it into two sections, just to make it more digestible. Now on with the chapter!**

**Chapter 5 - The Siege**

It was late night, about 4 hours from daybreak. Tonight was a new moon but even with that considered it was far darker than normal and not a single star was visible. The night sky was a curtain of pure black. The only light source for miles was the luminous glow of towns and cities over this particular part of Mobius, and the sinister reddish glow that emanated from Eggman's stronghold. On this dark night no creatures were active. Mobius was asleep, but there was a thread of tension that could be felt in the air if felt hard enough. Almost as if something was gradually building up, ready to be unleashed any time.

If you happened to be awake on this dark night, at such an early hour, because of this tension, you would be able to sense where this tension was originating. Several miles from the edge of the city there was a small area of woodland only about a mile wide. It was an ideal roost for local birds since it was quiet and free of any threats and over 1000 birds made their nests here alone. One of these nests was up a tall tree on the edge of the woods where no other nests had been made, and was owned by a lone male. It was at the base of this tree that the tension was coming from, for as the bird slept he was unaware of the air around his nest becoming misty and the leaves becoming moisture laden. He was also unaware of his right wing being lifted up by what appeared to be thin air and a small chip being removed from under it.

The plan was finally in motion.

* * *

><p>At such a tranquil and silent time of the night as this, the garish red light and the constant patrol of robots all over the vicinity made Eggman's colossal fortress seem alien and out of character compared to the rest of the night landscape of Mobius. Sleep wasn't something robots needed or had the capability to do. They always performed at the same constant capacity and only required maintaining or upgrading to keep performing as they were meant to. They made the perfect workforce, the perfect drones, and the perfect army. They would always do exactly what they were told without any complaint or second thought, for they could not think for themselves. There were many things however those robots were incapable of doing, and many instructions that were impossible for them to carry out. Anything that required initiative and being able to interpret and make plans or choices was beyond their threshold of capability. For those tasks to be done you needed an intelligence. An intelligence that was able to understand logic, could think by itself, and had the capacity to learn. No machine could ever possess that complexity in it's programming, oh no. For something to be able to do those things it had to have a mind of its own: a living being.<p>

The number of things that living creatures were capable of doing using their minds was infinite. They could plan things, think things through in a logical way, and find ways of making seemingly impossible things possible. It was possible to create living creatures both naturally and artificially, through birth and advanced genetic engineering, and these creations had incalculable potential; all living beings do. It is the most valuable gift anyone could have. There is one major drawback to creating living beings however, and that is their free will. A living being's thinking is so complex and independent that it is impossible to completely control, even with the strongest methods of persuasion. Nobody can expect a living being to follow commands or take orders that are given to them without any mental questioning of their actions. It's a crucial factor of the way that living beings think that many fail to take note of; and it was this very miscalculation that he made when creating the three living hedgehogs that would cost Dr. Eggman dearly in the near future.

Eggman was annoyed. He was growing increasingly tired of waiting for the remaining emeralds to be brought to him. The doctor was not a patient man even by regular standards. When he asked for something to be done he expected it to be done immediately and for it to be done exactly the way he wanted. So the fact that over the course of three days he had only received one chaos emerald hadn't set him in the best of moods. He was pacing up and down on the top floor silently cursing to himself and frequently checking the navigation screen that showed the two hedgehog's locations, to see if either signal was making its way towards the base. No luck this time either.

'Urghhhh! Blast those hedgehogs!' Eggman cried irritated, slamming the palms of his hands down on the computer desk. "They think they can make me wait for this long. Don't they realize that I am the magnificent and awesome Dr. Eggman, who will soon have the entire world at my command? Do they not realize who it was that created them? If they had even the slightest thread of sensibility in their minds I would be in the process of carrying out my ultimate plan by now, instead of being stuck here twiddling my thumbs while those two take their sweet time collecting those damned chaos emeralds! Urgh! I won't stand for it! Bring me those emeralds!"

He remained like this for a good few more minutes, too preoccupied with his rant (that was short in comparison to some of his more extreme cases) to notice the change on the computer monitor's readout. Indeed it was only after 7 or so minutes that he actually glanced at the monitor, 'I swear when those hedgehogs have done what I want then to I'm bloody well going to… huh?' finally calming down enough to actually see that one of the signals had changed it's course and was heading directly towards the base.

"At last," Eggman said exasperated, crossing over to the computer desk and resting his elbows on it, intertwining his fingers and leaning in close to the monitor. "He had better have some chaos emeralds with him if he wants me to forgive him for making me wait this long…"

* * *

><p>Despite being many times slower in comparison to Sonic and Shadow, Wave was still very good at running over longer distances and had the stamina and speed to be able to run at around 90mph as an average, though his sprinting skill was appalling. That said it didn't take him long to cross the vast open landscapes, shrouded in the black curtain of night, with the light of the five chaos emeralds, which he had in his possession, guiding his way. He had a perfectly good reason why he didn't take the easier option of chaos control. He had fulfilled his task and was now heading back to where he first came to fulfill the final order he would take from his creator. His destination was marked by the ominous red glow growing in the distance: Eggman's fortress, where Dr. Eggman was waiting for him.<p>

_I hope Eggman falls for it, _he thought as he ran. _Eggman needs to believe right until the very end that I'm still following his orders. I'm sure that all of these emeralds will be enough to please him. He should have all of them when I deliver these five, since I saw my twin's signal return to the base and leave again yesterday. Without luck he was bringing back a chaos emerald. If that is the case then Eggman now has three emeralds, combined with the five I've got that makes the full set of eight. _

He was very close now. The base was looming above him now as he was thinking.

"Finally my brother can be awakened," he said as he approached the entrance to the fortress. "Best of luck my friends. I'll do my best to do my part successfully. I trust you'll finish your part without any problem."

As he finished a hovering television screen with a camera beneath it descended from the towering walls. Eggman's annoyed face was displayed on the screen as it stopped just overhead.

'_It's about time you came back you lazy hedgehog! You do realize just how much time you've wasted?' _

The typical welcoming line from an impatient Dr. Eggman. Wave looked into the screen.

"My deepest apologies sir, believe me I would never have dreamed of making you wait so long if it wasn't completely necessary." Wave began apologetically, a definite hint of sincerity in his voice. "I hope you'll excuse my tardiness when you see what I have with me."

The Eggman on the screen's frown grew larger. _'We'll see about that. You had damn well better have some chaos emeralds with you if you want to even dream about being forgiven.'_

"Well doctor I'm reasonably certain you will forgive me then."

"_Oh you do, do you? And why is what?"_

"Because sir," Wave began, lifting up his hands in the process. The Eggman on the screen looked momentarily puzzled, but almost instantly his frown began to vanish, to be replaced by a massive grin. His eyes began to widen, and kept getting wider as not one, not two, not three, not four, but **five **chaos emeralds came before his very eyes.

"I have obtained five chaos emeralds."

It was now about three hours away from daybreak.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, as Wave was being let in to deliver the emeralds, in a different part of the base, on the north side, a platoon of robots, about 60 in number, was in charge of patrolling this particular area and stopping anything that tried to break in. The doctor didn't like small scuffles and minor hindrances around the base to interrupt his precious time; for that reason he had designed them to deal with intruders quickly and efficiently, without making any mess or causing any ruckus. As expected from units designed for this job, they were well armed, though not with explosives and heavy artillery, and were designed to be maneuverable, and quick moving, pursuing and stamping out any intruders that approached. That said there hadn't been any intruders for a long time now, and this, combined with the way they were designed had caused Eggman to turn a blind eye to them and their activity. That said, they were still very deadly fighting machines and were easily some of Eggman's strongest troops.<p>

So what reason on Mobius would Eggman have to be paying attention to them on this night of all nights? Not only was it one of the darkest nights ever, but Eggman had also just been given a very good reason to be paying no attention to anything except the gleaming emeralds that had just met his eyes. As the robot patrol in question kept their radars peeled for any trespassers, they were completely unaware of two pairs of eyes, two deep green, the other two dark red, watching as the patrol drew closer.

Whilst they had been on the other Mobius, both Sonic and Shadow had undertaken infiltration missions in the past, and the two had both infiltrated this place once before without being detected. This time though they were here for a different reason to do something completely different. Wave had given them the opportunity to reach the base and locate the way in before he did when he opted to run rather than use chaos control to reach the base, and now they were in position to carry out their part of the plan.

"Are you serious? These pathetic robots aren't even worth their weaponry."

"Yeah, Eggman's got no taste at all it comes to robot design. These'll be a piece of cake."

"Ha. Seeing as you're so confident and hyped up about this I'll leave this measly bunch to you. I'm going to find myself a real challenge, or as close to one as I can find."

"Hold on. There's no way you're getting all the best fights if I have something to say about it."

"And do you?"

"Course I do. I like a challenge just as much as you do."

"That's why I'm leaving you with these tin cans. They're challenge enough for you."

"What!? You're lucky I didn't take offense of that you bastard!"

"I'm only being truthful"

"Why you! I swear when this is done I'll…"

Sonic stopped himself just short of his verbal threat when he noticed that there were about 60 gun barrels now pointed their way.

"Oh…. Shit."

At that moment 60 laser blasts were fired in unison at the two of them. Sonic barely had enough time to dive for cover, only to find that he had dived off of their hiding place and was now plummeting towards the ground. He corrected himself just in time, landing on his feet as Shadow materialized beside him. A second later they found themselves surrounded by all 60 robots gathering around them in a circle, their weapons all targeting Sonic and Shadow.

"I guess it's too late to go looking for stronger robots now isn't it?" Sonic said, dusting himself off and standing up.

"And who's fault would that be?"

"Alright. I'm sorry for that. But that doesn't mean I'll bail you out of this."

"I never asked to be."

"That's true. So how do you want to go about this? One by one, or mass effect?"

"Which do you think?"

"My thoughts exactly."

"Hmph. This won't take long. Don't be overly messy Sonic. Eggman mustn't know of our presence until the time's right."

"I've not forgotten. Alright! Time to clear out the trash!"

* * *

><p>Wave was taken through the base via elevator and moving floors. Eggman didn't like walking at all and had installed these functions to avoid this being the case. Wave could've chosen to run to reach his destination in a much faster time but chose not to for two very good reasons. After about 9 minutes he was on the elevator up to the top floor of the fortress where Eggman was sure to be. He hoped that the chaos emeralds would serve as the ideal distraction so that the others could succeed at completing their roles around the fortress' exterior, whilst he fulfilled his part of the plan on the inside of the base.<p>

The elevator ground to a halt finally, and Wave tried his best to put an honest look on his face as the doors opened. The room that met his eyes was familiar to him. He'd been in this room several times whilst he was acclimatizing after his awakening. The floor was made of a large circular platform, around 40m wide in diameter, lifted up by a single pillar that ran up the tower in the center of the base. The walls were glass and, fitting for its creator, formed an egg shape around the top of the base. In front of him was a somewhat narrow walkway, leading up to a stairway, which he knew led to the control room, and at the base of those stairs stood the man he had come to meet.

"Ah, my young hedgehog." The doctor said welcomingly. "You're finally here." _An enormous change from the way he had been initially_, Wave thought to himself as the doctor approached him, a greedy smile on his face.

"Dr. Eggman, my mission is complete. I have the remaining chaos emeralds in my possession." Wave said.

_Don't talk too much and when you do talk with respect, and put yourself in the persona of his servant. _Wave gave himself a mental note.

"Hohohohoho. Excellent work WA-5E. You're certainly being what I designed you to be. Not like that other sorry excuse for a hedgehog. Now let's see those lovely shiny chaos emeralds you have."

_Don't worry you oversized egg. My brother and me are being much much more than what you designed us to be, and soon I'm going to show you just how much._

"Of course sir. Here they are." And he drew the White, Yellow, Blue, Cyan and Violet emeralds from behind his back. "The five chaos emeralds that are still needed to complete the awakening." He said as he passed them to the greedy scientist one by one. Eggman's eyes gleamed behind his lenses as he looked at the emeralds in his hands.

"This is perfect!" he cried triumphantly. "Now at last I can finally awaken the key to taking over this world! Ohoho I can't wait!

WA-5E make yourself useful and watch the surveillance whilst I go to begin my take over of Mobius." He said as he crossed to the elevator.

"Anything else doctor?" Wave asked as he headed for the control room.

"No. And don't bother interrupting me for anything. It won't make any difference after this is complete."

The lift closed behind Eggman.

_Perfect_

Wave hurried up the remaining steps and quickly headed for the control computer, sitting down at Eggman's personalized desk.

"Take over Mobius? Not in your life Dr. Delusional."

First he quickly hacked into the bases network system and located the controls for the moving floors and elevators. He set all of them to move at 1/6 of their regular speed. Knowing Eggman he wouldn't opt to walk anywhere in the base no matter how slow the conveyors and lifts were, and that was what Wave was counting on. He had counted 10 minutes total for him to get to the top floor meaning that it would take Eggman more than an hour to reach the part of the base where his brother was. After he and his twin had awakened the doctor had moved the pod to a secure room that only he could open, and he needed to make sure that Sonic and Shadow had enough time to finish their job, and for the three of them to make it in time to stop Eggman and defeat him.

Second he hacked in again and accessed the alarm system for the entire base and deactivated it. This would stop Eggman from being alerted to the rouse and allow the other two hedgehogs to wipe out his robots without his realizing.

Third and finally he transmitted a single order to every robot in the facility.

**Dr. Eggman to all mobile units. Two hostiles have been sighted in the north exterior of the base. Every functioning robot in this base is to make their way to this location at once and terminate this threat immediately. Do so as quickly as possible and no slacking, otherwise you will be deactivated.**

And with it he uploaded a marked location into all of the robot's navigation systems.

"Prepare yourselves guys. There's a very large scrap pile that needs to be removed. Best of luck"

In the elevator Eggman was busy fantasizing about his ambitions of world domination. Finally, after all of this time, after being thwarted time and time again his plan could finally come underway. However there was one thing he was puzzled about. He was certain the elevator shouldn't be moving as slow as this.

* * *

><p>Another 40 minutes had passed, and in the north of the base a massive dark cloud of smoke was rising into the already black sky. Eggman's whole robot force in terms of sheer numbers was a staggering amount, but only about 56 of them were designed for battle and most of them were the standard red battle pawns that could be beaten with minimal effort. Although the elites, that comprised almost all of the remaining faction, had better artillery and were better designed for combat, they were still reasonably easy to destroy if hit hard enough but in numbers they were incredibly dangerous.

The two hedgehogs between them had cleared off more than three quarters of the robots sent after them in the space of 40 minutes, and still had fight remaining in them. They weren't without a scratch though; Shadow had been damaged by a close-range explosive blast from a shell, and even though he had not received any severe injuries his ears had been left ringing and his vision mildly blurred from minor concussion. Sonic meanwhile had had lasers pierce straight through his left shoulder and upper left leg, hindering his speed and maneuverability, as well as making his left arm practically useless for fighting. Blood was running down from both injuries.

"Hey Shadow!" he called out as he tried to avoid two laser shots from a pair of robots either side of him, but still having it slice his torso and create a shallow gash all the way across. Even so the shot still flew past him and the robots exploded from each other's laser fire.

"Enjoying yourself? These robots sure know how to throw a party. Lots of laser lights and action."

Because of his ringing ears Shadow didn't properly hear the message, and his interpretation of it unfortunately came out as something that continually disturbed him whenever he thought about it later. He fired off a burst of chaos spears behind him at the 20 or so robots pursuing him, with roughly 9 hitting their targets. The rest quickened their speed and drove him back to Sonic's location.

"You know I always prefer not to question what goes on in your mind Sonic, because I'm starting to doubt how sane you are."

"Hey! And just what is that meant to imply?" Sonic didn't get an answer because he was faced with a barrage of missiles coming from a group of robots ahead of him, to which he responded by charging straight through their ranks with a speed boost, sending them flying over the top of the wall of the fortress and exploding. Even though it was effective he could feel the toll on his body from doing it, and more blood flowed out from his injuries.

_C'mon Sonic! You're letting these scrapes get the better of you. _He thought briefly before more robots took the place where the others had been.

"Haaaaaa!" He shouted as he performed a homing attack combo on a group of airborne bombers. The tuck movement however caused a massive pain jolt from his torso injury, stopping him mid-strike and he fell short of finishing off the last ones, instead landing on the ground beneath as this failure came full circle and he found a dozen shells falling towards him. He dodged them excellently, but his injury caused him to stumble briefly and in doing so couldn't steer clear of the last shell…

At the same time Shadow was trying to finish off his remaining pursuers with chaos spears. He had done excellently lowering their numbers, destroying more than 50 in a single minute but his blurred vision was disrupting his aim and his shots missed more often than they hit. What made it worse was that new robots were appearing quicker than he was destroying them. _This isn't working. _He thought desperately, dodging the blasts from his attackers. _These should be easy pickings for me. If I could only see properly. I have to end this now!_

He could only just hear himself think above the noise and his own ringing ears. Suddenly he changed course and sped back towards the open space of the base's grounds. The robots followed fast, but Shadow sped up and disappeared out of their view. The bots came to a halt and began to search more intently for his location. In this open space there were no hiding places except the darkness and smoke, two valuable allies for anything that wished to remain concealed. Then, suddenly something appeared on their scanners. All heads turned in Shadow's direction as the robots encircled him, weapons primed. Shadow wasn't moving. He wasn't even looking. He has standing still, legs slightly bent, arms crossed, with both his fists up by his shoulders.

"You robots couldn't tell a trap if it had a warning sign attached to it," he said smirking, "and now you'll pay the price for being unable to think."

A red glow was emanating from him, and there were even some tiny tremors that could be felt in the ground. Unfortunately the robots didn't think to run, for they couldn't think, instead firing their entire arsenal at him in a single motion.

"CHAOS"

Eggman was finally at the bottom of the elevator and was in the process of changing transport to the moving floor ways. That had been the longest elevator ride he had ever been in, and he was not in a good mood, despite the presence of the emeralds glowing beside him. As he moved onto the rail he could've sworn he'd felt a slight shaking beneath his feet, but he ignored it, after all, nothing that could happen now would stop him from fulfilling his grand scheme.

* * *

><p>As Sonic's senses finally returned to him after the shell shock, the first thing he thought was <em>Ok I'm still alive. That's good. <em>Secondly, _Still in one piece?_ As his feelings returned to him he could sense a great deal of pain. He managed to turn his head and look at what the explosion had done to him. He was surprised at what he saw. He _was_ still in one piece as far as he could tell, but the blast had hit him on his side and cleaved off areas of skin in places, revealing the bleeding flesh underneath. Shrapnel had wedged itself all along his side and his left arm and leg, leaving visible piercings all along them. His head and right side appeared undamaged however and apart from the pain he seemed to be thinking clearly. _Got out of that one well enough, but I doubt I'll fight well in this state. _Then came the second feeling, severe and very familiar pain in his cranium as his vision fazed out and caused him to seemingly hallucinate. _Concussion? _He thought. What he saw was an odd landscape. It was difficult to see and it wasn't in full focus, but it had a square, polygonal look to it and his view was from a side angle. From what he could make out, there was a blue figure running through it at a quick speed. As Sonic watched he saw the figure running past many gold, circular objects, seemingly disappearing after being touched. Then came a point were there was something in the air, and that something fired an object from its underside. The figure was hit, and then suddenly a ton of those same gold circles scattered away from it. The figure then jumped and destroyed the airborne thing in a spinning motion.

Sonic couldn't fully understand what it meant, but suddenly his senses snapped back to reality, and he was back at the base lying on his front. _What was that just now? Was I in shock, or was that another vision? _

Sonic's attention was then turned to something occurring at his feet. The ground was emitting a glow, but not like the glow of a fire or an incoming explosion. This glow was warm and radiant, and emitted a golden light. It was small and dull to begin with but gradually began to brighten. "I must still be hallucinating." He murmured, "The ground isn't meant to start glowing of its own accord." But the ground was glowing, or more accurately, something was forming on the ground that was emitting the glow.

The light became stronger and began to condense, forming the shape of some sort of golden object. A voice resonated in his head. _"I think this'll come in handy Sonic"…_

**The chapter continues in the second part. Thanks for reading.**


	7. Chapter 5: The Siege (Part 2)

**And right from where we left off, the second part of Chapter 5: The Siege**

* * *

><p>At the other end of the battleground, there was no activity remaining. All trace of attack robot had been vaporized and at the base of a substantially large crater that wasn't there originally, Shadow was recovering. Unleashing a Chaos Blast took its toll on him. Even through he hadn't removed his limiter rings, because of the enormous energy level required to perform it, the after-effects left him drained of power for several minutes, whilst the energy returned to him. It also gave time for his sight and hearing to improve.<p>

"That was more trouble than it was worth. Now where the hell is Sonic?"

As he was thinking this he wasn't aware of Sonic heading towards him on his good leg, using a piece of robot as a crude walking stick to support his other.

"Hey! Shadow! You're alive too huh? Well I shoulda known, takes more than that to take us out."

Shadow didn't see him to begin with, but gradually as his energy returned more and more, his sight and hearing returned to normal, until he could recognize Sonic.

"Well Sonic. I always knew you had a tendency of getting into trouble. Seems they were too much for you after all." He said, looking at Sonic's battered and bloody form.

"I'm still standing aren't I?"

"Hardly, You look as though you'd collapse any second"

"A few scratches won't put me out of action that easily. Besides it looks like we just cleared out the last of 'em."

As if on queue there came a massive bang from the wall of the fortress, Loud enough to make them both jump.

"Damn. You have really have a way of jinxing things, don't you Sonic?"

"Not really, it just means that there were a few more left that were late for the party."

Another bang, accompanied by a large dent appearing in the wall directly ahead of them.

"Something tells me we aren't gonna like what happens next. You agree Shadow?"

"The feeling's mutual. I don't particularly care what it is. The outcome will be no different from the rest."

"Well… Obviously but…"

Another massive bang, and this time the wall couldn't take it, blowing open in a huge explosion.

"Maybe it's really a push-over, pretending to be a big-shot."

Something stirred ahead of them. Two lights shone through the dust, followed by 8 more. Five silhouettes appeared; five silhouettes that were a good few meters high, and good few more meters wide.

"There goes wishful thinking."

"Sonic, let me deal with this. You won't gain anything other than putting your life in peril and it won't make me think any more highly of you. Besides I'm not about to take the chance of you accidently dying because you think you can fight when you can't. Find somewhere out of the way until I'm finished." Sonic was surprised at this change in character and it made him listen.

"Shadow I appreciate the concern, but it's not as bad as looks. I can fight just fine, besides I'm not about to let you have all the fun while I'm still…" "Sonic! Let me handle this!" Shadow's head had sharply turned to look back at Sonic with the side of his head. There was no trace of antagonism on his face or his usual grumpy expression. His teeth were bared and his brow was low and hard and his eye was glaring. He didn't need to fully turn his head for Sonic to get the message.

"Now get back," and Sonic did so without a word.

The dust had cleared now, and the five robots came into full view, advancing on large treads.

"The bigger they are the harder they fall. This won't take long."

It was now about two hours away from daybreak.

* * *

><p>Wave shuffled around in his seat. He had been like that for over an hour now and he wasn't comfortable at all. Eggman's chair that he was sitting in was designed for someone more than twice his size and several times his bulk, and the awkward sitting position he was in was giving him back pain, and his rear had become numb. Having a tail really didn't help either, and he was sure that when he got up it would be bent to one side in a ridiculous way. He was tediously patient by nature, but the circumstances did give reason to be anxious. Even so, he had since checked the system and run a count of the total number of robots in the base, which had revealed that there were in fact 940 robots stationed in the base, 782 of which were battle robots which, no matter how hard he looked, was a very substantial number.<p>

Wave brought up a screen showing CCTV cameras stationed around all parts of the fortress. His vision scrolled across each mini-screen; not a single robot.

_940, _he contemplated. _All the possibilities for their uses. It's a shame. They maybe could've been put to better use. _

Living creatures may be able to do an infinite number of things, but more often than not it's beyond their mental capacity, or their motivation. Robots do a task without question, and effort and motivation don't mean anything to them. They **are **the perfect labour force_. _

_Maybe I can salvage parts from what Sonic and Shadow leave in tact. 940 destroyed robots are bound to leave something still usable._

Eggman was still on the conveyor belt, now approximately half an hour away from his brother's containment. Finally it was time to move. Wave got up from the seat, stretched himself, feeling relief from finally getting out the awkward position, but declined to look at his tail. Once he liquidized his body it would return to normal anyway, so he spared himself the embarrassment. He quickly jumped down from the booth and stepped into the elevator.

He didn't know how Sonic and Shadow were doing because the cameras in that part of the base had long since been destroyed in the fight. He could only trust they were almost done. All three of them had to be ready and waiting for Eggman when he arrived at his destination. He had told them to meet him at the containment area a quarter of an hour before Eggman's arrival, and at the elevator's current speed it would take him 10 minutes to reach the bottom.

"Patience is a virtue. Is that the saying? Because if that's true then patience be virtuous now."

* * *

><p>"An unknown enemy is always the hardest to beat. Therefore…" Five chaos spears zoomed into the dust cloud, followed by five substantial bangs on solid metal. Five more followed in their wake, followed by five more after that. Testing shots. Each time there was a solid bang on metal, but not the sort of bang associated with piercing metal. Instead it was confirmation that these bots had been given a much larger budget in their armour. The spears where ricocheting off, possibly denting the robots but certainly not damaging them.<p>

Shadow stepped backwards, into the open space of the battleground, moving towards the opposite wall of the base and increasing the separation distance.

"Show yourselves."

The dust cloud remained, still. It wasn't settling. It wasn't even thinning.

"Don't toy with me! Stop hiding and show yourselves!"

He barely finished his sentence when a steady laser beam emerged out of the cloud, bright and hissing with electrical charge, homing in on Shadow at rapid speed. Three more followed suit, only to have to relocate their target, which had managed to jump to a new location in a split second. Even so the lasers recalibrated and homed in again on their target at incredible speed.

Sonic had found vantage point on the exterior wall of the fortress, clear of the battle zone below, put still within perfect view. He was watching the events unfolding below. Shadow was resorting to chaos control to avoid the laser beams but, much to Sonic's and Shadow's frustrated astoundment, the beams were adjusting to the constant warping and relocating so quickly that Shadow was becoming harder and harder pressed to warp to a safe location in time.

While this had been happening the dust cloud surrounding the hostiles had been thickening. From Sonic's viewpoint there were no visible silhouettes now, as there had been before. What was more worrying however was that the cloud was moving, out into the centre of the battle zone and what's more, it was growing. Engulfing the area, and soon Shadow with it.

"Shadow, if you get caught in that cloud dodging may not be enough," he said to himself. "Unless you're stalling for time you're tugging at straws down there."

He realized however though that the sentiment had come too late. The cloud had engulfed the whole battleground, and Shadow had vanished into the dust.

Shadow was now short sighted with the cloud of thick dust around him, and now he was even harder pressed to up his dodging game. He was still ahead of the lasers but the time frame was far narrower now with the limited visibility. This combined with the continued pressure of dodging four different lasers only to have to successfully repeat the same maneuver a split second later, and the continued fatigue of three nights without sleep, the loss of energy from the robot eradication and the after effects of the chaos blast, to say he was physically and mentally taxed was an understatement.

Shadow knew this, and as he'd been moving he'd made a point of following the direction of the lasers, and had followed it back to one of the robots. From there he'd warped in a circular fashion around it, clocking the bot's design - very basic in its structure, shaped like an upturned cup. It had no visible protrusions or weapon compartments, except for a ring of long spikes, branching out in all directions around the base and rotating at a quick enough pace to do severe enough damage.

Whatever it moved on was tucked away under the dense metal armour plating covering its exterior, which showed no trace of denting or breaking from the chaos spears. The laser was originating from the headpiece, which was a smaller sphere revolving around in all directions.

The only blind spot was directly underneath the bots, and with the spikes there that too was covered.

The design was impenetrable with his current strength and means of attacking. His only option was another Chaos Blast, but with the strain from the dodging and his almost depleted energy he couldn't do it yet without removing his cuffs, which he knew would incapacitate him anyway. That wasn't an option available to him at this stage of the plan, even more so with the state Sonic was in. His only option was to tough it out.

_A little longer_, he told himself mentally. _Just a little longer._

Then he remembered something.

_Five silhouettes, four lasers… _

"Where's the fifth?"

Then he felt a considerable impact in his back. He staggered, and the lasers were on him. Control of limbs were taken away from him one by one as his arms and legs where grabbed and stretched out by the grapples, and he was lifted up to the eye level of the fifth robot, its two enormous flat hands in position either side to slowly crush him.

* * *

><p>The base was very quiet now. Eggman's energy had petered out and now he was tapping his fingers together, a small frown on his face. Meanwhile, at the base of the control tower an elevator came to stop and opened its doors to allow the passenger out. No passenger was there however, but the elevator's interior was dripping with condensation and mist, which drifted its way out of the airtight elevator and dispersed.<p>

* * *

><p>As Sonic continued to watch on, bleeding and battered, the dust cloud suddenly weakened. The swirling dust slowed itself, thinning out and slowly began to disperse.<p>

_Did he deal with them?_

Sonic had heard a loud bang just before the cloud began to settle. He'd immediately concluded that Shadow had won, until he realized the bang had been rather anticlimactic. No explosions and resulting shock waves, or stray robot debris flying clear of the cloud.

"Shadow what's going on down there?"

Sonic then finally heard it. The dust had masked the sound until now, but he could now hear the same hissing coming from the laser beams that he had done before. There was something else too. A faint grunting; the sort associated with trying to lift heavy weights.

And then Sonic could see it.

Four dome like robots, arranged in a square with laser beams all pointed toward the centre, each one grabbing and restraining one of Shadow's limbs. He'd been lifted up by them and was immobile, though clearly resisting. Positioned in front of him was a fifth bot. This bot was decidedly more mobile, carried on a set of heavy-duty wheels, and coming up from them was a solid torso section and dome head. More distinct however were its arms; solid and thick, with visible hydraulic pipes. At the end were two flat and wide 'hands' - hands perfect for crushing whatever was in between them, and even now Shadow was slowly being crushed by them, grunting in pain and exertion, trying to stop the hands from moving any further in.

Sonic couldn't understand why he was frozen in place, unable to move a muscle. He knew instinctively he had to do something but his mind was blank. What on Mobius could he do? If Shadow hadn't been able to stop them, whilst being physically unhindered unlike himself, and possessing the experience and power to fight ably that he just didn't have. It had been a miracle that he Sonic had even reflexively been able to fight without any experience, and even them look how he was now, beaten up and bleeding and unable to properly fight. This was completely different though. Far tougher than any of the others he'd already brought down, and if Shadow couldn't beat them how on Mobius could he?

"What can I do!?" _Ahh!_

Sonic felt the familiar pain in his head once again and he found himself hallucinating again.

_What is it? SOMETHING!? What can I do?!_

Two things flashed in front of him. The first was a round gold object, which gained in brightness and then flashed out, being replaced with something else. A spinning blue orb which zoomed off at incredible speed, and punched itself into a solid light barrier. The barrier held but the orb continued spinning, and gradually cracks appeared in the barrier. Then SMASH! The barrier burst and with it the hallucination, and Sonic could once again see the robots and Shadow again. It was then that Shadow caught Sonic's eye. The look that he gave him was clenched up in excruciation, but in the eyes was determination. He hadn't yet bit the dust. He was fighting still, and Sonic was going to make sure he still would.

"UuuuaaaaAAARGH! Shadow! HOLD ON!" Sonic shouted. He stood up, calmly, feeling no pain in his body. He gritted his teeth, and clenched his fist tight, and within it something gold glowed.

The fifth bot paused. A new target had appeared on its radar. Up on the wall. A bright light had just appeared and gathered in strength, and then with a flash, something materialized, small, ball shaped, and spinning at incredible velocity. Then it sped off and an instant later one of the restraining robots exploded, a gaping hole ripped straight through its thick armour. A second later another one was pushed backwards briefly, before it too had a hole punched it and exploded.

Shadow's arms were freed and he took the opportunity to increase the resistance on the crusher, slowing it down a little bit. Now the third restraining bot was shoved back into the fourth, acting as a back brake and allowing Sonic the punch through it and destroy it. The fourth one was the pushed backwards further until it collided with the wall and released the final grapple on Shadow.

Sonic had been losing spin the more he tried to maintain the form, and the exertion was causing extreme waves of pain to go through his body due to his injuries. Even so he continued to push against the thick metal, new determination in him.

"WE. AREN'T. DONE. YET!" and then the metal crumpled before him, and he crashed into the wall of the fortress, as the bot exploded behind him.

Sonic's revelations began to slow and he finally came to a stop in the substantial hole he'd made in the wall of the fortress. Pain hit him straight away, and it took him a moment to regain his senses. Then he remembered.

"Shadow!" He called, and looked back at the fifth bot that still remained. His face sank when he saw Shadow, fighting with all his might to break free of the bot's crushing hands.

"Shadow!"

"Uhh! Sonic! Take cover! NOW!"

"Huh?"

"TAKE COVER NOW!"

Shadow looked at him with the same look he'd given him when he'd told him to hide. Sonic retreated inside the hole again and took cover.

Shadow did as he had done before. He drew on chaos energy inside him and a red glow appeared around him. The bot began to tremble with the ongoing rumbling, almost as if it was feeling actual terror.

"CHAOS BLAST!"

Sonic felt the shockwave hit him, despite the solid wall protecting him. The battlefield was lit up in red light, followed by a wave of destruction that obliterated everything it came into contact with. This was far beyond the explosion Sonic was hit with by the shell, or the explosions given off by the restraining robots as he punched through them. This was on a completely different level of power. Sonic wouldn't have lied to say that he was afraid.

_This is the power Shadow has? Holy shit…_

* * *

><p>After the explosion had finished its onslaught of destruction Sonic finally dragged himself out of the hole. All trace of the robots had gone. Even the dust from the dust cloud was nowhere to be seen. In its place was a crater, and at the base lay Shadow. After the exertion the spinning attack had done, and with nothing to prop him up, all Sonic could do was crawl over towards the crater.<p>

Shadow was lying on his front, energy temporarily gone, and trying hard to prevent himself from falling asleep. He'd gathered up the energy just in time, but it hadn't been full power, and was only enough to get the job done. That said no more robots were appearing, so it was safe to assume that they'd finished their task.

Phase 2 was complete.

"Shadow?"

"Uhhhhh" Shadow opened his eyes to find Sonic sitting beside him, still bleeding and looking ready to collapse.

"I think that's it. Job done, unless there are any stragglers."

"Yeah…" was what he could manage.

"No chocolate I'm afraid. Sorry"

"Don't be. You bought enough time for me to finish the job. You didn't do half bad Sonic."

He looked over at Sonic, and a faint smile appeared on his face, and he chuckled. Sonic was taken aback, and he too started chuckling. The two of them remained like that for a minute or so, mutually appreciative of each other and glad that their job was done, at least for now.

"I saw you hadn't given up. That was really the only reason I could do what I did. And this thing," Sonic said, showing the glowing ring that had materialized before him when he'd been injured.

_Huh!? Sonic's spin ring!? Where and when did he get that!?_

"This thing just appeared right before my eyes. It's what enabled me to do that spinning attack. Haven't a clue what it is or how it got here though."

_What exactly happened? Tails made him that. I can't exist here, but it __**is **__here nonetheless_

"Nor do I. That thing's new to me." Shadow said, getting up finally, his energy returned enough.

"Once this is over, maybe you can ask Wave to look into it."

"I may just do that, and speaking of Wave. Uuuhhh," Sonic suddenly looked disgruntled.

"Now I remember we're not done. Sorry Shadow, but I don't think I can walk on my own, and I don't think I'll be much use fighting. That last fight took it out of me."

"You mean…"

"Yeah. Help us out here buddy," Shadow gave Sonic a very distasteful look.

"Sonic don't call me buddy."

"But Shadow I can't…"

"Give me your arm, we need to get moving" Shadow said, in an exasperated voice.

Sonic grinned.

"Heh. Sure thing. Thanks"

* * *

><p>It was now almost 1 hour away from daybreak, and the control room at the top of the base was extremely quiet. Nobody was manning the station, but if they had been they would've seen empty corridors, devoid of any robots, testing chambers for experiments, and also a transport car making its way towards the holding chamber for one such experiment. The only odd thing about it was that nobody was riding it.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Aaaaand finish! Summer Holidays coming to a close as I wrap up this chapter. This coming Sunday I'll be starting fresher's week at my University. I got started on this chapter such a long time ago, but now finally, with my A levels done and the grades I needed obtained, I was determined to finish this chapter with it. <strong>

**I was never intending the chapter to be so long, but that's just how it went. Even so it feels quite momentous. My big peeve with this chapter was that it had fight scenes in it, which was an area that I really didn't know how to tackle. Since then however, thanks to shows like Naruto, One Piece, and Sword Art Online it really improved my awareness of how to do fight sequences, and that's what you saw in this chapter. My writing style also evolved in that time frame, hence the rewrites of old chapters. You should treat them as the canonical ones instead of previous ones.**

**As far as the next chapter - Chapter 6: The Plan is concerned, you shouldn't expect anything. I'll see if I can find spare time during my time at University, but you shouldn't expect it for a while yet. What I will be doing is planning and thinking of how to tell the story after this coming chapter, and I have some plans, but don't be too expecting. In the mean time good reading to you and stay updated.**


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